Original scientific paper
The Modalities of Expressing Consent by Non-State Actors to be Bound by the Rules of International Humanitarian Law
Rutvica Rusan Novokmet
orcid.org/0000-0002-6235-1012
; Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The author of this paper analyzes the concept and the legal status of non-State actors as parties to non-international armed conflicts. A special emphasis is placed on common Article 3 of the four Geneva Conventions for the protection of victims of war of 1949, as well as on the Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 1949, and Relating to the Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts (Protocol II) of 1977 – the fundamental legal framework that regulates conduct of all parties to non-international armed conflicts. Notwithstanding the fact that these international instruments equally bind both States as well as non-State actors as parties to non-international armed conflicts, the legal position of non-State actors, compared to States, is not identical. Moreover, non-State actors cannot become parties to the aforementioned international agreements. In such a context, the author introduces alternative mechanisms (the conclusion of other international agreements, making unilateral declarations or Deeds of Commitment) which non-State actors can use to express their will and consent to be bound by the rules of international humanitarian law. The author concludes that such mechanisms may produce positive effects on non-State actors’ awareness of their responsibility for violations of those rules.
Keywords
non-State actors; the Geneva Conventions of 1949; the Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 1949, and Relating to the Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts (Protocol II) of 1977; unilateral declarations; responsibility of non-State actors
Hrčak ID:
193111
URI
Publication date:
15.1.2018.
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