Armed Groups, Rebel Coalitions, and Transnational Groups: The Degree of Organization Required from Non-State Armed Groups to Become Party to a Non-International Armed Conflict
Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law 2016, Vol. 19, Springer, pp. 3-35, December 2017
Posted: 2 Jan 2018
Date Written: 2017
Abstract
Identifying non-state parties to armed conflicts becomes increasingly complex. As seen in recent conflicts in Syria, Libya, Yemen, or the Central African Republic, turmoil or inter-communal tensions escalate into armed conflicts, armed groups fragment increasingly, and some armed groups operate transnationally. Over the past decade, international jurisprudence developed numerous indicative factors to identify organized armed groups. While recognizing their great value, this chapter proposes to take a step back from these concrete indicators in order to recall broad but fundamental characteristics that any party to non-international armed conflict needs to have under international humanitarian law. It is shown that every party to a non-international armed conflict has to fulfil three criteria: it has to be (1) a collective entity; (2) with capabilities to engage in sufficiently intense violence; and (3) internal structures sufficient to ensure respect for basic humanitarian norms. Building on this basic understanding, the chapter provides an analysis of two questions that are highly relevant in contemporary conflicts but understudied: First, what link needs to exist between different armed groups in order to be considered one party to a conflict? And second, at what point can two or more groups that operate in different states form one transnational party to conflict?
Keywords: Non-state armed group, Organized armed group, Non-international armed conflict, Party to a conflict, Organization Organization criterion, Transnational conflict, Transnational armed group, Global war on terrorism, Islamic State
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