It also applies, where relevant, to neutral states and to individuals. IHL applies to all parties to armed conflict: states and, where relevant, dissident armed forces or organized armed groups. ) The applicability of IHL to an armed conflict is not predicated on the (un)lawfulness of the resort to force, which is governed by a different field of public international law: the jus ad bellum. (Some anti-terrorism treaties, however, exclude from their scope of application the conduct of forces in an armed conflict. Terrorist acts and other forms of involvement by terrorists in armed conflict may arise in relation to either category. IHL generally recognizes two categories of armed conflict: international armed conflict (IAC) and non-international armed conflict (NIAC). In the recent formulation of Special Rapporteur Michael Wood, customary international law “means those rules of international law that derive from and reflect a general practice accepted as law.” Treaties are international agreements between two or more states. There are two main sources of IHL: treaties and customary law. IHL applies only in relation to situations of armed conflict. A related question is whether certain acts of terrorism may give rise to or form part of a situation of armed conflict. One of the primary questions is the definition of armed conflict-its geographic, temporal, material, and personal scope-under international law. Nearly a decade and a half after the attacks of 9/11, state officials, scholars, and civil society actors continue to disagree about an array of legal, policy, and strategic issues at the intersection of armed conflict and terrorism. Definition and Classification of Armed Conflicts under IHL And 78% of all fatalities due to terrorist attacks that year took place in five countries (Iraq, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Syria). More than 60% of those attacks occurred in five countries (Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, and Nigeria). Terrorist attacks took place in 95 states in 2014. Compared to 2013, these figures reflect a 35% increase in attacks and 81% increase in fatalities. State Department, 13,463 terrorist attacks resulted in 32,727 fatalities, in 34,791 injuries, and in 9,428 people taken hostage or kidnapped. In 2014, according to statistics used by the U.S. Some commonly used statistics, however, suggest that terrorist attacks are on the rise. The lack of definitional consensus among states makes it difficult to quantify terrorist attacks. Nor do we mean to characterize the actual legal status of any particular individual or entity. Our use of these terms is not meant to weigh in on the validity of any of those definitions. The relevant legal definition of terrorist, terrorist act, or (acts of) terrorism must be found in domestic law or international law. Similarly, the terms terrorist act and (acts of) terrorism are used here to denote those acts meeting a relevant legal definition of terroristic conduct. Thus, the term terrorist is used here to denote persons, entities, or conduct meeting a relevant legal definition of terrorist. ĭue to the lack of definitional consensus between states, for the purposes of this report we defer to definitions of (acts of) terrorism, terrorist, and terrorist act found in any of the relevant jurisdictions where such terroristic conduct may be committed, especially-due to our focus here-those with a sufficient nexus to an armed conflict. And at the domestic level, states have promulgated wide-ranging anti-terrorism legislations. Security Council has considered terrorism a threat to international peace and security and has sanctioned individuals and groups associated with al-Qaeda. Examples include those aiming to prevent and punish certain terrorist acts-such as hijacking airplanes or hostage taking-and to suppress terrorism financing. However, states have developed, at the multilateral and regional levels, numerous anti-terrorism treaties. Definitions and Incidence of TerrorismĪs discussed in more detail in section 5, there are no generally agreed-upon definitions of terrorism, terrorist, or terrorist act in international law. Finally, we outline the potential status of terrorists under IHL. We then describe and discuss challenges concerning the classification of armed conflicts involving terrorists under IHL. We first briefly note the definitions of terrorist and terrorism we use in this report. To foreground the discussions of medical care in IHL and states’ responses to terrorism, this section outlines key concepts in IHL and counterterrorism frameworks.
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