A importância estratégica do emprego de minas marítimas e o direito internacional público : situação atual

Abstract

The purpose of this monograph is to evaluate the strategic importance of the sea mines application in the current worldwide scenario, and also to analyze the existing international regulation, which binds the legality of the application of this weapon of war. Also it is pointed out in this work what has being developed for the Brazilian Navy in the field of the mine warfare and mine countermeasures, in harmony with the existing international Convention. We will see that for being a weapon with a certain dissuasive power it should not be relegated to the secondary plain, since it has an important role into the denial of sea areas to the enemy. The interruption of the see communications lines is an efficient way of causing damages to the enemy. In this context, the sea mine has a considerable strategic value, being employee mainly by the weakest belligerents. Due to the technological development, the sea mine became an intelligent device, allowing its use against specific military targets, thus preventing the indiscriminate effect. This meets the contained one in the Humanitarian International Law, with regard to the indiscriminate violence effect. Due to the increasing power of destruction, developed throughout the years, the sea mine became an object of concern of the International Law. Thus, in 1907 the VIII Hague Convention was carried out, being ratified by Brazil in 1914. Up to the current days this is the only International Convention about the use of automatic submarine contact mines. However, as a result of meetings of international experts, it was published in 1994 the San Remo Manual on International Law Applicable to Armed Conflicts at Sea. Even though it was an International Convention, approved and ratified in the worldwide rank, it expresses much of what is accepted and applied by the majority of the States, in regard to the mine warfare at sea. The sea mines are, still today, very important for many Navies, however, the respective States are responsible for the fulfillment of the effective international rules. The Brazilian Navy has been trying to keep its capacity of mine warfare and mine countermeasures, among other forms, by developing new sea mines in partnership with private companies, modernizing the Mine Countermeasures Force, and keeping its doctrine of mine warfare in accord with the international rules