INSURGENTS RECOGNISED AS BELLIGERENTS OF NON-INTERNATIONAL ARMED CONFLICTS IN TRADITIONAL AND CONTEMPORARY INTERNATIONAL LAW
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25234/pv/31476Keywords:
international humanitarian law, Geneva Conventions on the Protection of Victims of War, non-international armed conflicts, insurgents, recognition of insurgents as belligerentsAbstract
The focus of traditional international legal regulation of armed conflicts was primarily on international armed conflicts, which resulted in legal lacunae in respect of the limitation of the conduct of the parties to internal armed conflicts before the Geneva Conventions on the Protection of Victims of War and Additional Protocols to these conventions had been adopted. The subject of this paper is the analysis of the important changes brought about by the contemporary international legal framework in respect of the more detailed regulation of non-international armed conflicts. Furthermore, the author assesses that the more concrete limitations of the conduct of the parties to these conflicts have directed the application of the rules of international humanitarian law to the more efficient protection of victims of war. In this context, the relevant provisions of the international legal instruments applicable to non-international armed conflicts are analysed, followed by the consideration of different definitions of non-international armed conflicts and their parties contained in the Geneva Conventions and the Additional Protocol II, as well as by the analysis of the most recent decisions of international courts and tribunals, which have made a significant contribution to the interpretation and development of international law applicable in this kind of armed conflict. Special attention is given to the concept of recognition of insurgents as belligerents. In comparison to traditional international law, this concept has undergone significant transformation in the context of the obligation to apply international humanitarian law. The author concludes that the gradual cessation of the application of this institute, along with the mitigation of differences between international and non-international armed conflicts, has contributed to the awareness of all parties to armed conflicts of the obligatory nature of the relevant rules of international humanitarian law, i.e. of their responsibility for the protection of victims of war, the respect of the principle of humanity, and the demands of public conscience, from the beginning of an armed conflict to its cessation.
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