Summary

Abstract

During the 1990s the international community established the idea of internationally created and protected areas within the war zone: In 1990 the USA initiated safe havens for the Kurds in Northern Iraq, in 1993 the UN-Security Council declared six safe areas in Bosnia and Herzegovina in order to protect the Muslim population from the Serbian aggression and in 1994, during the civil war between the Hutu and Tutsi in Rwanda, France — with authorization from the UN-Security Council — created a safe humanitarian zone. Although the humanitarian situation was grave, the degree of safety in these areas was partly very low and the UN-safe area Srebrenica even ended with mass killings and the death of more than 7000 persons. The UN-Security Council in 2000 considered temporary safety zones as a means for the protection of civilians and the delivery of humanitarian assistance in situations of mass persecution as a result of genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes. But until now the UN still lack a clear concept as well as rules and guidelines as to the creation, organization and protection of such safety zones.