Obligations of Conflicting Parties to the Rules and Principles of Humanitarian Law in Syrian Internal Crisis

Syrian protests for political and economic reforms in the country started in January 2011. However, after a while of course and due to external interventions, and international humanitarian criteria, the crisis has been transformed into internal armed conflict, which resulted in the death of more than thousands of people and displaced millions of Syrian citizens. According to the rules governing on internal armed conflicts, parties to the conflicts must observe some minimum obligations regarding the protection of civilians as well as applying tools and methods of the battle. The violation of these obligations will lead to responsibility of the violating party. The main issue is the basis of obligations of parties to the crisis and the application and enforcement of rules of international humanitarian law. In this paper, Syrian crisis and crimes which occurred therein such as chemical attacks are analyzed and parties’obligation to apply humanitarian rules are considered.