Such conflicts are considered “non-international armed conflicts” if one side is composed of non-state actors, even if the other side involves multiple countries who are “High Contracting Parties.”Ĭommon Article 3does provide some basic protections.

In those only common Article 3–just a sliver of the Geneva Conventions-technically applied because it is the only Article that explicitly governs conflicts involving a non-state actor. This is a somewhat different body of law than that applicable to America’s post-9/11 wars. Why? Article 2 also says the Conventions “shall also apply to all cases of partial or total occupation of the territory of a High Contracting Party, even if the said occupation meets with no armed resistance.”

This is so even if the Russians call it a “peacekeeping” mission or whatever as Article 2 says the Conventions apply to any “armed conflict which may arise between two or more of the High Contracting Parties, even if the state of war is not recognized by one of them.”įurthermore, the Geneva Conventions have applied between Russian and the Ukraine at least since the takeover of Crimea in 2014. Yes, this is a classic state-on-state international armed conflict which, in accordance with common Article 2 of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, triggers their full application. They are by no means full dissertations on often complicated applications of the law, but will-hopefully-help you get started with your own assessment.

With intense fighting underway in the Ukraine, this post in our seriesis designed to give brief answers to some law of armed conflict questions this invasion and subsequent crisis has generated.

Geneva convention law of armed conflict