This Factsheet provides an overview of the prohibition of intentional starvation of civilians as a method of warfare under international law. It considers two important bodies of public international law: (a) international humanitarian law (the body of law that defines the rules for parties to armed conflict which, for humanitarian reasons, seeks to limit the effects of armed conflict on civilians); and (b) international criminal law (the body of law that seeks to prohibit the commission of serious atrocities and hold perpetrators to account for their individual criminal responsibility).
