Inducing Compliance with International Humanitarian Law: Lessons from the African Great Lakes Region

Cambridge University Press, 9/18/2015
EAN 9781107102057, ISBN10: 1107102057

Hardcover, 576 pages, 22.8 x 15.2 x 3.2 cm
Language: English

The number of armed conflicts featuring extreme violence against the civilian population in areas with no or little state authority has risen significantly since the early 1990s. This phenomenon has been particularly prevalent in the African Great Lakes Region. This collection of essays evaluates, from an interdisciplinary perspective, the various traditional and alternative instruments for inducing compliance with international humanitarian law. In particular, it explores the potential of persuasion, as well as hierarchical means such as criminal justice on the international and domestic level or quasi-judicial mechanisms by armed groups. Furthermore, it evaluates the role and potential of human rights bodies, peacekeeping missions and the UN Security Council's special compliance system for children and armed conflicts. It also considers how Common Article 1 to the Geneva Conventions and the law of state responsibility could both potentially increase compliance with international humanitarian law.

1. Introduction Heike Krieger
Part I. Conditions for Compliance by Armed Groups, Focussing on Non-Hierarchical Instruments
2. Rational motives for civilian targeting in civil war Reed Wood
3. Insurgent governance in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Zachariah Mampilly
4. The power of persuasion
the role of international non-governmental organizations in engaging armed groups Ulrich Schneckener and Claudia Hofmann
5. Comment - persuading armed groups to better respect international humanitarian law Olivier Bangerter
6. Implementing humanitarian norms through non-state armed groups Sandesh Sivakumaran
Part II. Criminal Prosecution
Hierarchical Enforcement on Different Levels
7. Courts of armed groups a tool for inducing higher compliance with international humanitarian law? Jan Willms
8. Comment - perspectives on courts established by armed opposition groups Dieter Fleck
9. The role of international criminal prosecutions in increasing compliance with international humanitarian law in contemporary African conflicts Robert Cryer
10. National courts
the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Jean-Michel Kumbu
11. Comment - the Congolese legal system and the fight against impunity for the most serious international crimes Balingene Kahombo
Part III. International Organisations as Actors for Ensuring Compliance
12. Enforcing international humanitarian law through human rights bodies Dominik Steiger
13. Comment - enforcement of international humanitarian law through the human rights organs of the African Union Faustin Zacharie Ntoubandi
14. The UN Security Councils special compliance systems - the regime of children and armed conflict Regina Klostermann
15. Ensuring peacekeepers' respect for international humanitarian law Siobhán Wills
16. Comment - obligations of States contributing to UN peacekeeping missions under Common Article 1 to the Geneva Conventions Matthew Happold
17. Comment - UN peacekeeping in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
the travails of civilian protection Denis M. Tull
Part IV. The Role of Third States
18. Common Article 1 to the Geneva Conventions
scope and content of the obligation to ensure respect - narrow but deep or wide and shallow? Robin Geiß
19. Complicity in violations of international humanitarian law Helmut Philipp Aust
20. International responsibility for humanitarian law violations by armed groups Kirsten Schmalenbach
Conclusion
21. Where states fail, non-state actors rise? Inducing compliance with international humanitarian law in areas of limited statehood Heike Krieger.