Hvad har Taleban bundet sig til? Og hvad med oprørerne på Ny Guinea? Det er lagt ind i en ny database i Schweiz, som skal gøre det nemmere at holde ofte uregerlige militsgrupper inde i det humanitære felt – til gavn for civilbefolkningen.
JOHANNESBURG, 12 November 2012 (IRIN): A new database by the Swiss-based NGO “Geneva Call” collating (sammenligner) current and past armed groups’ attitudes towards international humanitarian law (IHL) and human rights law (HRL), could be used to hold them accountable (til ansvar).
“This resource is a unique collection of humanitarian commitments made by armed non-State actors (ANSAs).
These commitments have been made in different forms: unilateral declarations or statements, internal rules and regulations, and agreements with governments, inter-governmental and humanitarian organizations,” says the NGO.
Maud Bonnet, Geneva Call’s project coordinator, told IRIN the database reveals armed groups “policies, commitments and views on international humanitarian law and international human rights law”, as well as affording these groups an opportunity to “share their positioning in regards to humanitarian norms”.
Entitled “Their Words, Directory of Armed Non-State Actor Humanitarian Commitments”, the database is also aimed at national states, UN agencies, NGOs, academics, the media and as “a resource for humanitarian actors to hold ANSAs accountable,” she said.
So far it contains more than 400 documents from armed groups stretching from Senegal’s Mouvement des Forces Démocratiques de la Casamance (MFDC) through to Papua New Guinea’ s Bougainville Revolutionary Army and numerous updated versions of the Mujahedin’s Layeha – the Taliban’s code of conduct (interne retningslinjer).
Listing all commitments
Among other things, it lists armed groups’ commitments in terms of the protection of civilians and children, the use of land mines and the Geneva Convention.
Beyond the hype of ‘climate wars’ Geneva Call’s mandate is to engage ANSAs (non-State actors) and promote “compliance with the norms of international humanitarian law (IHL) and human rights law (HRL)”.
The organization focuses on ANSAs that operate outside effective state control. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has also worked extensively with armed groups to instil respect for IHL and HRL.
Often consigned to the margins, the window of opportunity for armed groups to abide by the laws of war is curtailed (indskrænket) by the state-bias of IHL and HRL.
The stereotyping of conflicts between two conventional armies facing off on a battlefield has in its own way brushed armed groups to the sidelines, but the existence of such formations underscores their role in conflict throughout history.
From from Spartacus’s slave revolt against Rome, to the 1936-39 Spanish Civil War, and armed groups involvement in at least 48 non-international armed conflicts in 2011.
Legal standing
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