The Environment as a Silent Casualty Legal Protection of Nature in Armed Conflict with Insights from the Western Balkans
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Abstract
Armed conflicts have long generated profound and enduring environmental harm, producing pollution, ecological degradation, and public health risks that can outlast human suffering by decades. Although international law has progressively expanded its recognition of the environment as an interest deserving protection—from early limitations in the Hague Regulations to the environmental safeguards in Additional Protocol I, the ENMOD Convention, and emerging customary international law—these regimes remain constrained by high evidentiary thresholds, anthropocentric framing, and weak enforcement mechanisms. This article examines the position of the environment within international humanitarian law (IHL), international criminal law (ICL), international human rights law (IHRL), and international environmental law (IEL), using the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia (1991–1999) as a case study to illustrate persistent normative and institutional gaps. Post-conflict assessments and international jurisprudence reveal how industrial bombardments, chemical releases, landmine contamination, and urban infrastructure collapse produced extensive and enduring ecological damage across Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Serbia/Kosovo, yet yielded no criminal accountability. The fragmentation between environmental bodies and international tribunals, coupled with political reluctance to prioritize ecological justice, further limited legal responses. The article argues that effective protection of the environment in armed conflict requires both normative development—such as the proposed recognition of ecocide—and institutional integration that embeds environmental expertise within accountability and transitional justice mechanisms. The experience of the Western Balkans demonstrates that safeguarding the natural environment is essential not only for ecological integrity but also for the long-term viability of post-conflict recovery and sustainable peace.
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