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Jesse Rapczak
30 October 2018
Our Rule of Law in Armed Conflicts (RULAC) online portal provides a detailed analysis and legal classification of the international armed conflict (IAC) between India and Pakistan over Kashmir.
Visitors can discover an overview of the conflict since its inception in 1947, recent developments, the factual and methodological basis for its classification as an IAC, parties to this conflict and the applicable international law.
‘The disputed status of Kashmir has been a source of conflict between India and Pakistan for more than 70 years, with a devastating impact on the civilian population’ stresses Chiara Redaelli, Research Fellow at the Geneva Academy.
‘The threshold for classifying a situation as an IAC is very low: whenever there is resort to violence between two states, there is an IAC’ underlines Chiara Redaelli. ‘Hence, although there is no fully fledged war between India and Pakistan, international humanitarian law of IACs continues to apply between the two countries due to regular border skirmishes and ceasefire violations that have increased since 2013’ she adds.
Initiated in 2007, RULAC is an online portal that systematically qualifies situations of armed violence using the definition of armed conflict under international humanitarian law (IHL). While RULAC is still under development and new entries continue to be regularly added, it currently monitors more than 26 armed conflicts involving at least 39 states that visitors can discover either by browsing the map or by browsing conflicts by type or region.
‘The RULAC database is unique in the world in that it legally classifies situations of armed violence that amount to an armed conflict under international humanitarian law (IHL)’ underlines Marco Sassòli, Director of the Geneva Academy.
‘This is crucial because IHL applies only in armed conflicts. Before humanitarian players, civil servants or academics can invoke IHL or analyze whether IHL was violated, they must know whether it applies. Outside armed conflicts, only international human rights law applies’ he adds.
News
ICRC
The first of a longer series aimed at producing a global comparative analysis, they provide a unique insight on how two armed non-State actors perceive international humanitarian law and some selected rules contained therein.
News
ICRC
We have been conducting research for more than 10 years on armed non-State actors, and continue to do so via two leading projects.
Short Course
ICRC
This short course, which can be followed in Geneva or online, discusses the protection offered by international humanitarian law (IHL) in non-international armed conflicts (NIACs) and addresses some problems and controversies specific to IHL of NIACs, including the difficulty to ensure the respect of IHL by armed non-state actors.
Short Course
ICRC
This short course, which can be followed in Geneva or online, examines the sources of international humanitarian law (IHL). It provides an introduction to the key principles and terminology of IHL.
Project
Oliver Peters / Pixabay
The ‘Counter-Terror Pro LegEm’ project combines legal analysis with social science research to (1) examine the effectiveness of counterterrorism measures and their effects on human rights and (2) analyse the structure of terrorist networks such as Al Qaeda or the Islamic State and see whether they qualify as ‘organized armed groups’ for the purpose of international humanitarian law.
Project
UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe
Publication
OUP
