Criteria for defining an armed conflict in international legal acts

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of international normative legal acts in the context of determining the criteria for armed conflict. In addition, the authors pay attention to the wording of this concept for the proper qualification of the form of armed violence. The authors also explore the effect of international humanitarian law in the event of an armed conflict, because participants of an international armed conflict are obliged to comply with international humanitarian law applicable in such conflicts. The main sources of international legal regulation of armed conflicts include the so-called “Geneva law” and the “Hague Law”. The category of an “armed conflict” in international relations was first used in the Geneva Conventions of 1949, where, along with the term “war”, the concepts of “international armed conflict” and “non-international armed conflict” are used. In addition, the authors emphasize that the concept of an armed conflict should be distinguished from other related concepts such as war, internal unrest, tensions and acts of violence. The distinction between “war” and “armed conflict” is rather arbitrary. In particular, it is believed that the concept of an “armed conflict” is broader and encompasses the concept of “war”. However, not every armed conflict can be called a war, because war has the following features that are not inherent in an armed conflict: the act of declaring war; severance of diplomatic relations between the belligerent states, which is a consequence of the war declaration; the cancellation of bilateral treaties, especially political ones. The autors think that that today one of the most acute problems in the practice of an international humanitarian law application is the lack of a clear and complete definition of all situations to which its provisions should be applied. Thus, international humanitarian law only describes situations that should be regulated by its norms. At the same time, there are still no clear and unambiguous criteria by which such situations can be identified

Keywords

• armed conflict
• war
• internal disturbances
• internal unrest
• international humanitarian law
• війна