SOMMARIO: 1. Il diritto umanitario nei conflitti armati - 2. La codificazione del diritto umanitario - 3. Diritto della guerra e diritto della pace - 4. L’articolo 11 della costituzione italiana - 5. La protezione internazionale dei diritti e delle libertà della persona - 6. Conclusioni.
ABSTRACT: The military operators must also assure the peace with the weapons and, above all, the persons responsible of the operations must give test of great sensibility because busy to conjugate laws and rules war with the objectives of pacification. The authorities responsible for the operations at any time they need to know what they can or must do and what orders impart; they must know what it cannot do or what should be avoided. The international humanitarian law, important part of the international law, is constituted by conventional and consuetudinary norms that are applied in the relationships among States with a specific objective: to protect in time of armed conflict the people who do not take part or do not take more part in hostilities and impose bans or limits to the use of means offensive, of sophisticated weapons and methods of warfare in situations of armed conflict in act or to avoid sleepwalking. The codification of the international humanitarian law is initiated in the century XIX, above all when it was tried to introduce with the Declaration of Petersbourg in 1868 a principle that individualized in the contrariety to the laws of the humanity the impassable limit to respect in the armed conflicts. The codification has received then force and importance after the second world conflict that the consciences of the people had struck with the systematic practice of the most merciless violence making to record million of deads. The fundamental importance of the 1949 Geneva four Conventions is unanimously recognized. They are based on ratio of the existence and the responsibilities of the Organization of United Nations; they have properly constituted the central nucleus of the said humanitarian law and they can be also considered as a reaction of the civilization towards the unheard of violences committed toward civil populations, prisoners and deporteds. In this reflection it is normal entirely a reference to the rules of engagement that accompany every military operation. The rules of engagement substantially have an operational content and the busy soldiers on the field set their attention on these rules more and more that in practice they represent a daily vademecum , not only because they individualize the chain of command. Their juridical value depends on the single arrangements that of it therefore responsible. The word "war" in the contemporary age it doesn't boast an uncontested right of citizen anymore in the international relationships. Our constitution in art. 11 among the fundamental principles enact that Italy repudiates the war as an instrument of offense against the freedom of other peoples and as ameans of resolving international disputes. The war, as an instrument normally used in the past in the relationships among States, it is not in our juridical arrangement anymore. In 1948 started a very strong commitment to the universal level and at regional level; so much so that today we can count at least 130 Conventions and agreements for the protection of human rights, in various respects, for different situations. The reference to the international obligations placed to protection of the people led us to remember what has been written recently, i.e the two systems, the traditional humanitarian law and the recent human rights, with different historical training and technical configuration, based on a common philosophical basis, the affirmation of the value of the person, and tend toward the common goal of ensuring a stable and effective protection in every circumstance, that is then condition of world peace.