6 17. The primacy of the principle of respect for the dignity of the human being is identified as the purpose of both law and the legal system at the national and the international level. By virtue of this fundamental principle, all individuals must be respected (both their honor and their beliefs), based on the mere fact of belonging to the human race, irrespective of any other circumstance.23 The principle of the inalienability of the rights inherent in the human being is, in turn, identified with a basic premise of the development of the whole corpus juris of international human rights law. 18. In relation to the principles of international humanitarian law, it has been argued with persuasion that, instead of trying to identify provisions of the 1949 Geneva Conventions or the 1977 Additional Protocols that could be considered to express general principles, it would be preferable to consider these conventions and other humanitarian law treaties as a whole, as constituting the expression – and the development – of those general principles, applicable under any circumstances, so as to better ensure the protection of the victims.24 19. In the Mucic et allii case (Judgment of February 20, 2001), the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (Appeals Chamber) considered that both international humanitarian law and international human rights law are founded on their common concern for safeguarding human dignity, which forms the basis for their minimum standards of humanity (para. 149). Indeed, the principle of humanity may be understood in different ways. First, it can be conceived as an underlying principle of the prohibition of inhuman treatment established in Article 3 common to the four 1949 Geneva Conventions. 20. Second, this principle may be invoked referring to humanity as a whole, in relation to matters of common, general and direct interest to the latter. And, third, the same principle may be used to quality a specific quality of humaneness. In the Celebici case (Judgment of November 16, 1998), the said International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (Trial Chamber), described inhuman treatment as an intentional or deliberate act or omission, which caused “serious mental or physical suffering or damage,” or constituted a “serious attack on human dignity” (para. 543). And added that: "inhuman treatment is intentional treatment which does not conform with the fundamental principle of humanity, and forms the umbrella under which the remainder of the listed ‘grave breaches’ in the Conventions fall" (para. 543). Subsequently, in the T. Blaskic case (Judgment of March 3, 2000), the same Tribunal (Trial Chamber) reiterated this position (para. 154). 21. We should not forget the celebrated Martens clause, which was originally inserted in the preambles to the 1899 Hague Convention (II) (para. 9) and the 1907 Hague Convention (IV) (para. 8), both relating to the laws and customs of war on land. Its purpose was to juridically extend protection to civilians and combatants in 23 B. Maurer, Le principe de respect de la dignité humaine et la Convention Européenne des Droits de l'Homme, Paris, CERIC/Univ. d'Aix-Marseille, 1999, p. 18. 24 R. Abi-Saab, "Les ‘principes généraux’ du Droit humanitaire selon la Cour Internationale de Justice", 766 Revue internationale de la Croix-Rouge (1987) pp. 386 and 389.