This groundbreaking article by Andrew Bartles-Smith published in the International Review of the Red Cross (read the full article here) explores the implications of attaching military chaplains and similar religious personnel to state militaries and non-State armed groups, and what this means for international humanitarian law (IHL), otherwise known as the law of armed conflict.

While IHL assigns religious personnel a non-combatant humanitarian function equivalent to medical personnel, stipulating that they should perform exclusively religious duties, the article argues that this underestimates the scope of “religious” activity, particularly the moral dimension of their ministry and the force-multiplying and restraining effects that this has on combatant behaviour. The more that religious personnel are invested in the achievement of a fighting force’s military objectives and are involved in its military operations, the likelier it is that they will test the parameters of their humanitarian function, and the protections they enjoy under IHL. Religious personnel are most needed in the midst of armed conflict, however, and the tensions and ambiguities between their religious and military support functions are integral to their cross-cutting role. The contributions that religious personnel can make to humanizing war, and socializing IHL or corresponding religious principles, depend on them being present to support combatants and not confining themselves to a separate, but less effectual, humanitarian space.

The article contextualizes the ministry of religious personnel under IHL within the intersecting religious, political and military environments that they inhabit. It provides a summary of current IHL provisions for religious personnel, noting some of their limitations, and gives an historical overview of the emergence and development of religious personnel, illustrating some of the similarities and differences in the roles of clerics across various traditions. It investigates the tensions between religious and secular authority that characterize the work of many religious personnel, and how the nature of the relationship between religions and state militaries or non-state armed groups might affect their ability to fulfil an exclusively humanitarian function.

The article then explores the functioning of religious personnel within military organizations themselves, examining how various aspects of their ministry relate to military activity and to IHL. It reviews the different ways and degrees to which religious personnel are integrated into military organizations, studying the implications of involving religious personnel in military operations both for their protections under IHL and their ability to support or possibly undermine it. The article considers the influence of religious personnel’s moral and morale-boosting function on force multiplication and restraint, including the upholding of military ethics and IHL, before examining the importance of their counselling and pastoral support for the spiritual and psychological well-being of individual combatants, and their capacity to fight within the rules. Finally, the article offers suggestions as to how religious personnel might be better mobilized together with legal and humanitarian teams in support of IHL.

Andrew Bartles-Smith has over twenty years’ experience working for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Asia, pioneering innovative approaches to engage with armed groups and religious circles, and spearheading the promotion of research and debate on correspondences between religious traditions and international humanitarian law (IHL). Andrew has launched major projects and international conferences on Islam and IHL, Buddhism and IHL and Humanitarian Affairs in Asia, as well as boosting humanitarian engagement with Hindu, Christian, Chinese and local/ indigenous traditions. Andrew is Co-editor of the book Buddhism and International Humanitarian Law (2023, Routledge), and author of a number of peer-reviewed articles on religion and IHL. He established the ICRC Religion and Humanitarian Principles website with Daniel Ratheiser and colleagues in 2021, and is on the advisory board of the Beyond Compliance Project. He holds a MA in International Relations and Contemporary War from the Department of War Studies at King’s College London, and has studied a number of Asian languages.