The captives of warlords: hostages or prisoners of war? Challenges for IHL in non state actor conflicts

Abstract

The proliferation of non-international armed conflicts, in which non-state actors, such as the so-called warlords, exercise de facto authority over territories and populations, poses a major challenge for the application of International Humanitarian Law. In these contexts, deprivation of liberty has become an instrument of political, economic, and social control, located at the intersection between security detention and hostage taking. This study examines the legal status of captivity exercised by warlords, exploring its motivations, functions, and limits, and analyses detention carried out by non-state actors, outlining the legal boundaries that International Humanitarian Law recognizes for these groups and the obligations arising from their effective control over persons and territory. The aim is to assess the adequacy of the existing humanitarian framework in addressing new forms of captivity and to evaluate the capacity of international humanitarian norms to safeguard human dignity in the absence of sovereignty.​