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7. The conjunctive nature of the phrase ‘widespread, long-term, and severe’ makes it clear that the Rule is only breached when the environmental damage is exceptionally serious.112
SECTION 10: DIPLOMATIC ARCHIVES AND COMMUNICATIONS Rule 84 – Protection of diplomatic archives and communications Diplomatic archives and communications are protected from cyber operations at all times. 1. This Rule is based on Articles 24 and 27 of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and on the International Court of Justice’s Tehran Hostages judgment.113 2. The International Group of Experts agreed that this Rule is applicable in both international and non-international armed conflicts.114 With regard to diplomatic archives, the protection in Article 24 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations expressly applies ‘at any time and wherever they may be’. In particular, Article 45(a) provides that ‘The receiving State must, even in case of armed conflict, respect and protect the premises of the mission, together with its property and archives.’ As to official diplomatic communications, Article 27 is implicitly applicable at all times based on the Article’s object and purpose, as well as its context. State practice supports the characterization of these rules as customary in character. For example, in 1990 the United Nations Security Council condemned violations of diplomatic premises during Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait.115 The Security Council demanded compliance with the Vienna Convention, notwithstanding the existence of an international armed conflict.116 112
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Under the Environmental Modification Convention, the corresponding criteria are disjunctive. Environmental Modification Convention, Art. II. Tehran Hostages case, paras. 61–2, 77, 86. See also Vienna Convention on Consular Relations Arts. 33, 35, 24 April 1963, 596 U.N.T.S. 261. At the time of drafting, the Netherlands voiced a dissenting viewpoint, arguing that only the law of armed conflict covered wartime relationships between States. See Documents of the Tenth Session including the Report of the Commission to the General Assembly, [1958], 2 Yearbook of the International Law Commission 126, UN Doc. A/CN.4/ SER.A/1958/Add. No record of concurrence by other States exists. S.C. Res. 667, para. 1 (16 September 1990); S.C. Res. 674, para. 1 (29 October 1990). S.C. Res. 667, para. 3 (16 September 1990).