The International Legal Status of Armed Groups: Can One Be Determined Outside the Scope of Armed Conflict?

2018 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 321-335 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Gal
Keyword(s):  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Armed Groups ◽  
Legal Personality ◽  
International Legal Personality

In 2016 Daragh Murray published his book Human Rights Obligations of Non-State Armed Groups (Hart 2016). By way of distinction from many other contributions on this widely discussed topic, Murray tries to provide the reader with a complete overview of the legal framework that enables armed groups to acquire international legal status, and preferably outside the framework of armed conflict. He walks the reader through the path of international legal personality, leading towards the acknowledgement of armed groups as addressees of the law. Murray's attempt is courageous, interesting and innovative, but it has its shortcomings. These include his reliance on international criminal law as a source for defining armed groups, and his insistence on stepping outside international humanitarian law. Nonetheless, his contribution is essential for those who wish to include even more armed groups on the international plane.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tilman Rodenhäuser
Keyword(s):  
Legal Framework ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
General Introduction ◽  
Legal Personality ◽  
Key Terms ◽  
International Legal Personality

The general introduction sets the scene for the legal issues addressed in this book by presenting their relevance in most recent conflicts and other situations of violence, including in Syria, Iraq, Libya, Ukraine, the Central African Republic, and Kenya. It also introduces the legal framework the book sets out to examine, notably international humanitarian law, human rights law, and international criminal law. The introductory chapter further presents the book’s methodology, introduces its structure, and explains key terms and concepts. These include, in particular, the terms ‘non-state armed group’, ‘international legal personality’, and ‘degree of organization’, which are especially relevant throughout the book.

scholarly journals The Accountability of Armed Groups under Human Rights Law

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katharine Fortin
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
Added Value ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Armed Groups ◽  
Legal Personality ◽  
New Perspective

Although the practice of holding armed groups to account under human rights law remains controversial and under-theorized as a matter of law, statements from Commissions of Inquiry and United Nations Special Rapporteurs holding armed groups to account under this body of law are relatively commonplace. Motivated by this contradiction, this study aims to clarify when and how armed groups are bound by human rights law. It brings several key issues of clarification to the legal framework. The first part of the book presents a new perspective on the role that human rights law plays in the legal framework that applies to non-international armed conflict. In particular, the study investigates the normative added value that human rights law can bring vis-à-vis international humanitarian law. The second part of the book sheds light on the circumstances in which armed groups acquire obligations under human rights law. Combining historical and comparative research with theoretical analysis on international legal personality, the research demonstrates what the legal frameworks of belligerency, insurgency, and international humanitarian law can tell us about when and how such groups may be bound by human rights law. The third part of the book tests and investigates the four most utilized theories of how armed groups are bound by human rights law, examining (i) treaty law, (ii) control of territory, (iii) international criminal law, and (iv) customary international law. The book’s conclusions are drawn together thematically and contain important practical recommendations for practitioners in this field.

scholarly journals Liar's war: Protecting civilians from disinformation during armed conflict

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Eian Katz
Keyword(s):  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Needs ◽  
Traditional Classification

Abstract Disinformation in armed conflict may pose several distinctive forms of harm to civilians: exposure to retaliatory violence, distortion of information vital to securing human needs, and severe mental suffering. The gravity of these harms, along with the modern nature of wartime disinformation, is out of keeping with the traditional classification of disinformation in international humanitarian law (IHL) as a permissible ruse of war. A patchwork set of protections drawn from IHL, international human rights law and international criminal law may be used to limit disinformation operations during armed conflict, but numerous gaps and ambiguities undermine the force of this legal framework, calling for further scholarly attention and clarification.

International Humanitarian Law and International Criminal Law

2019 ◽  
pp. 141-169 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suzannah Linton
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Law ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
Asia Pacific ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
External Threats ◽  
Regional Trends

This chapter assesses the approaches of Asia-Pacific states to international humanitarian law (IHL) and international criminal law (ICL), within the context of the international legal framework. It first addresses influential approaches in the region, including how states present themselves in relation to IHL and ICL issues. Next, it considers how regional states engage with the issue of responsibility in international law, with an emphasis on IHL and ICL. The chapter then examines acceptance of these two bodies of law, arguing that there is no hostility to the basic norms of IHL, but a more unsettled approach to ICL. There is a definite chill in respect of aspects that potentially encroach on independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity, or that smack of Western neo-colonialism. These are of course subjectively evaluated by each state. In practical terms, this frostiness can be seen in the responses to external threats of accountability against political leaders, the exercise of universal jurisdiction, Security Council referrals to the International Criminal Court, Pillar Three of the R2P doctrine, the crime of aggression, and certain formulations of other international crimes (for example, war crimes in non-international armed conflict). However, even within these broad regional trends, there is no uniformity. There is decidedly no collective ‘Asia-Pacific approach’ that emerges from the present chapter.

Sources of International Humanitarian Law and International Criminal Law

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raphaël van Steenberghe
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
Rome Statute ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Armed Groups ◽  
The Impact

This chapter analyses the specific features which characterize the sources of international humanitarian law (IHL) and international criminal law (ICL). It first examines those which are claimed to characterize IHL and ICL sources in relation to the secondary norms regulating the classical sources of international law. The chapter then looks at the specific features of some IHL and ICL sources in relation to the others of the same field. Attention is given particularly to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and the impact of its features on other ICL sources, as well as to the commitments made by armed groups, whose characteristics make them difficult to classify under any of the classical sources of international law. In general, this chapter shows how all those specific features derive from the specific fundamental principles and evolving concerns of these two fields of international law.

The Criminalization of War Crimes in Italy and the Shortcomings of the Domestic Legal Framework

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 679-697
Author(s):  
Giulio Bartolini
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Law ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
War Crimes ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Criminal Code ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Military Operations

Abstract The Italian domestic legal framework related to war crimes is characterised by several shortcomings. It is still largely centred on the provisions present in the 1941 wartime military criminal code, which have not been subjected to substantial legal restyling, regardless of the explicit and implicit obligations of domestic criminalization inferred from treaties ratified by Italy. Only in 2001–2002, at the time of Italian military operations in Afghanistan, were certain amendments to this code introduced, in order to partly adapt its content to current rules of international humanitarian law and international criminal law. However, such solutions have not brought about effective harmonization and were drafted within an incoherent legal framework, made even more complex by subsequent reforms addressing military missions abroad, thus resulting in the current unsatisfactory scenario which would require substantive reforms.

International Legal Personality of Armed Groups under Human Rights Law

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katharine Fortin
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Armed Groups ◽  
Legal Personality ◽  
Threshold Test ◽  
International Legal Personality

This final chapter of Part II of the book draws together the conclusions of the previous two chapters to develop conclusions about the circumstances in which armed groups can acquire legal personality under human rights law. Examining these conclusions, the chapter argues that there is a need for a threshold test to be met before international human rights law can be applied. It argues that this threshold test should include an ‘organization’ component and an ‘international’ requirement. Drawing upon the conclusions in Chapter 2 on the normative value of human rights law versus international humanitarian law, the chapter ends by considering how an armed group’s control of territory may be relevant to such a threshold test.

International Humanitarian Law and International Legal Personality

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katharine Fortin
Keyword(s):  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Armed Groups ◽  
Legal Personality ◽  
Threshold Test ◽  
State Consent ◽  
International Legal Personality

This purpose of this chapter is to determine what the framework of international humanitarian law demonstrates about the material and theoretical circumstances that are required in order for armed groups to acquire international legal personality under international humanitarian law. To fulfil this aim, the chapter analyses the threshold of international humanitarian law and explores its relevance to the acquisition of legal personality by armed groups. The chapter ends by analysing the threshold test against the evaluative framework in Chapter 3, drawing conclusions about the role that State consent plays in the acquisition of international legal personality by armed groups under international humanitarian law.

scholarly journals THE ACT OF ABDUCTION AND WOMEN TRAFFICKING IN NON-INTERNATIONAL ARMED CONFLICT (NIAC): BOKO HARAM CASE

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-97
Author(s):  
Astrid Adelina ◽  
Nadhifa Khairunissa Ishadi
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Law ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Geneva Convention ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Suicide Bombing ◽  
Boko Haram ◽  
The Law

ABSTRACT Armed conflict situations will always have real negative implications, one of them is the attack against civilians. Civilians are considered as non-combatant, they do not participate in armed conflicts, thus they should not be targeted and attacked. One of the civilian groups who have special protection is women. But, in reality, women still frequently become the main victim. In the case of non-international armed conflict between Nigeria and Boko Haram, it is found that 2000 female students were abducted. They were sexually abused such as raped, sexual slavery, forced marriage, trafficked and ordered to commit suicide bombing. Nigeria is a state party to Additional Protocol II of the 1949 Geneva Convention as well as Rome Statute 1998. Nonetheless the crimes cannot be avoided and go unpunished. This paper highlights the analysis of the crime addressed to women from the perspective of international humanitarian law and international criminal law particularly in regards to the law enforcement. Research indicates that there is impunity which causes unwillingness of Nigeria to enforce the law against Boko Haram. Hence the international mechanism through ICC can be the best option to bring justice. Keywords: Boko Haram, International Criminal Law, International Humanitarian Law, Non-International Armed Conflict, Women.   ABSTRAK Keadaan konflik bersenjata akan selalu memiliki implikasi negatif yang nyata, salah satunya terhadap pihak sipil. Pihak sipil disebut sebagai non-kombatan, yaitu orang-orang yang tidak berpartisipasi di dalam konflik bersenjata, yang berarti orang-orang tersebut bukanlah target dan tidak boleh diserang. Salah satu pihak yang mendapat perlindungan khusus adalah perempuan. Tetapi, pada kenyataannya perempuan masih sering menjadi korban utama. dalam konflik non-internasional antara Nigeria dan Boko Haram, ditemukan fakta 2000 pelajar perempuan diculik. Mereka mengalami berbagai kekerasan seksual seperti pemerkosaan, budak seks, kawin paksa, perdagangan manusia, dan bahkan untuk melakukan bom bunuh diri. Nigeria adalah negara pihak Protokol Tambahan II Konvensi Jenewa 1949 dan Statuta Roma 1998. Namun kejahatan-kejahatan tersebut tidak dapat terhindari dan tidak diadili. Tulisan ini menitikberatkan penegakan hukum terkait kejahatan terhadap perempuan dilihat dari perspektif hukum humaniter internasional dan hukum pidana internasional. Berdasarkan penelitian, terdapat praktek impunitas yang menunjukan ketidakmauan Nigeria untuk melakukan penegakan hukum terhadap Boko Haram sebagai pelaku kejahatan tersebut. Oleh karenanya mekanisme ICC dapat merupakan pilihan terbaik untuk menegakan keadilan. Kata Kunci: Boko Haram, Hukum Humaniter Internasional, Hukum Pidana Internasional, Konflik Bersenjata Non-Internasional, Perempuan

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