Introduction In 2012, violence broke out in Libya and later spread across several Arab countries over what protestors termed as the American disregard of Muslim religious saints through a film that showed disloyalty to Prophet Mohammad. In Libya, this violence prompted the death of the US ambassador to Libya and three of his assistants. The unanswered question in this scenario is whether the action of the protestors amounted to breach of international law as it applies to freedom of religion and human rights. Global media has been reporting on the progress of eminent military interventions in Syria to punish the government of Syria for the allegedly using chemical weapons against its citizens. Such an intervention requires calls into action the international law as it applies to use of force in conflict resolutions coupled with the rights of protection of sovereignty of nations. International law will play a big part in the resolutions on whether to attack Syria or not by the UN Security Council. The main aim of this paper is to discuss the Libyan case and the Syrian case in the context of international law. Through investigation of Syrian and the Libyan cases, the paper scrutinises the applicability of international law in the context of protection of human rights. Background to international law International law is a body of rules and principles that various nations commonly embrace and acknowledge to tie their interactions. Smith (2011) notes that international law underscores the structure with which states and nations collectively accept to abide in their conduct and dealings. International law essentially entails pacts, customs, and all the legal agreements amongst various nations. Essentially, international laws are applicable to countries, rather than individual civilians (Schrock-Jacobson 2012). To some extent, national legal instruments are applicable as international law, especially when agreements entrust their territorial power to supranational hearings. With regard to Haugen and Boutros (2010), international law is not mandatory except when sovereign countries deliberately decide to adhere on their own consent. Despite the view that subscription to international law pacts is consent-based, the application of several international regulations affects even non-member states, which steadily follow definite practices, though not as a legal mandate. Rules that conflict with the international community as absolute law are subject to modification through peremptory standards of the international law (Haugen & Boutros 2010). Indeed, international law embraces the diverse and distinct legal customs and interactions from which its basic principles are founded. International law is drawn from sources such as customs and conventions, or pacts. Customs are defined as common and steadily followed practices by given state communities, from which customary international law derives its discourses (Chen 2011). At the premise of seeking common standards among the international community, agreements and conventions have demonstrated tremendous significances subject to states’ legal responsibilities towards their demeanour, nationally and internationally. International organisa