The contemporary complexities affecting the assessment of the legal criterion of a non - international armed conflict under International Humanitarian Law

Abstract

This thesis analyzed the existing laws relating to non-international armed conflict, namely Common Article 3 and Additional Protocol II, to address the complex nature of contemporary armed conflict which often challenges the traditional framework of assessing the existence of a non-international armed conflict. Two major challenges were considered in this thesis. The challenge affecting the first benchmark test of a non-international armed conflict relates to the assessment of the organization of armed groups in coalitions to qualify such alliance as one party to a conflict. The second test challenge addressed the impediment caused by a coalition of armed groups in assessing the intensity of a conflict. The challenges of multiple armed groups fighting collectively or independently against a common entity, be it a state or another armed group, renders the bi–lateral assessment of intensity inappropriate and makes it impossible to determine the ‘protracted armed violence’ and ‘sustained and concerted military operations’ threshold required to create a non-international armed conflict. In response to this operational assessment challenge, the question of whether the Tadic definition and its threshold criteria are fit for purpose to classify complex non-international armed conflicts was examined.