Human Rights in Occupied Territories

The exterritorial application of the human rights conventions is one of the key discussions in application of human rights conventions. The question is that weather the states are obliged to respect their human rights obligations when their armed forces involve in international armed conflicts and military occupations. The author believes that the human rights regulations are applicable in occupied territories.The article considers three factors for proving this theory: first, the ratione tempori of the international humanitarian law and human rights law, second the interpretation of jurisdictional clauses of human rights conventions and the third, the role of effective control as a prerequisite for application of human rights regulations.The final outcome is that although the humanitarian law regulations governs the situations in armed conflicts and military occupations, the human rights regulations do not cease to apply in those situations, even in occupied territories, and they cover the failures of humanitarian law in such situations.