Chapter 1 • International Human Rights Law and the Role of the Legal Professions: A General Introduction the international monitoring organs in the human rights field are obliged to follow previous judicial decisions.30 Although this is usually done, it is particularly important for the monitoring organs in the human rights field to retain the flexibility required to adjust earlier decisions to ever-changing social needs, which, at the international level, cannot easily be met through legislation.31 Suffice it to add in this context that the reference to “judicial decisions” can also mean judicial decisions taken by domestic courts, and that the higher the court, the greater weight the decision will have. However, when international monitoring organs interpret human rights law, they are likely to do so independently of domestic laws. As to “the teachings of the most highly qualified publicists”, it must be remembered that article 38 was drafted at a time when international jurisprudence on human rights law was non-existent. Whilst the interpretation and application of this law must principally be based on the legal texts and relevant case-law, writings of “the most highly qualified publicists” can of course in some situations contribute to an improved understanding of the law and its practical implementation. Yet it is advisable to exercise considerable care before relying on legal articles and principles and comments adopted by private bodies outside the framework of the officially established treaty organs, since they may not in all respects correctly reflect the status of the law to be interpreted and applied. 2.5 International human rights law and international humanitarian law: common concerns and basic differences Although this Manual is aimed at conveying knowledge and skills in human rights law, rather than in international humanitarian law, it is important to say a few words about the relationship between these two closely linked fields of law. Whilst both human rights law and international humanitarian law are aimed at protecting the individual, international human rights law provides non-discriminatory treatment to everybody at all times, whether in peacetime or in times of war or other upheaval. International humanitarian law, on the other hand, is aimed at ensuring a minimum of protection to victims of armed conflicts, such as the sick, injured, shipwrecked and prisoners of war, by outlawing excessive human suffering and material destruction in the light of military necessity.32 Although the 1949 Geneva Conventions and the two Protocols Additional thereto adopted in 1977 guarantee certain fundamental rights to the individual in the specifically defined situations of international and internal armed conflicts, neither the personal, temporal nor material fields of applicability of international humanitarian law are as wide as 30 As to the International Court of Justice, see article 59 of the Statute. 31 See e.g. the case in which the European Commission of Human Rights reversed its own earlier decision according to which a legal person, such as a church, could not bring a case under article 9(1) of the European Convention on Human Rights claiming a violation of “the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion”, Eur. Comm. HR, Application No. 7805/77, X. and Church of Scientology v. Sweden, decision of 5 May 1979 on the admissibility of the application, 16 DR, p. 70. 32 Seguridad del Estado, Derecho Humanitario y Derechos Humanos, Informe Final, San José, Costa Rica, Comité Internacional de la Cruz Roja/Instituto Interamericano de Derechos Humanos, 1984, p. 7. 12 Human Rights in the Administration of Justice: A Manual on Human Rights for Judges, Prosecutors and Lawyers