Armed groups under contemporary International Law. Obligations and responsibility

Abstract

 Non-state armed groups are not a new phenomenon. However, the increase in non-international armed conflicts since the end of the Cold War and the emergence of the international terrorism has opened the debate about the effectiveness of the International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and the International Human Rights Law (IHRL) to regulate and sanction the activities of armed groups. This lack of control and regulation is due to the fact that traditional treaties on IHL and IHRL only take into consideration the acts of States in conflict settings. On the other hand, the Statute of the International Criminal Court only covers the actions of individuals but not of groups or legal persons. Nevertheless, during the last years the practice of international organizations, the initiatives of certain NGOs and the literature on the subject advocate for the applicability of human rights obligations to armed groups and their international responsibility for the possible abuses committed.