Exploring the extent of ethical disobedience through the lens of the Srebrenica and Rwanda genocides: can soldiers disobey lawful orders?

Abstract

Although obligation in the military world implies a strict duty to obey the orders that are given, this obligation is conditional on the lawfulness of these orders. In other words, soldiers have the moral duty to disobey orders that would lead them to commit unlawful actions. Therefore, ethical disobedience is an important feature of the armed forces and cannot be ignored. This text contemplates an extended version of this logic by considering whether or not soldiers have the duty to disobey lawful orders that, if respected, will likely result in harm to civilians, such as war crimes and/or genocide. Based on the examples of the genocide of Srebrenica in 1995 and Rwanda in 1994 and from moral arguments, this text discusses that ethical disobedience should include such a possibility.