Strategies to ensure compliance with International Humanitarian Law by Actors in Internal Armed Conflicts in Africa: Proceedings of the Eighth Joint AU/ICRC Brainstorming Day

Internal armed conflicts are increasingly at the fore of international political and legal debates. Africa itself has been witness to instances of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, often perpetrated in the course of internal armed conflicts. Governments and international organizations therefore need to examine the question of how to adequately respond to these conflicts in order to address, and ultimately protect against, their very grave humanitarian consequences. Both the African Union and the ICRC have recognized the contemporary relevance of international humanitarian law to internal armed conflicts while simultaneously being aware that its rules are too often ignored. This year's upcoming ICRC/AU Brainstorming session thus aims to reflect upon possible strategies for influencing actors involved in internal armed conflicts to comply with the applicable rules of international humanitarian law. While initially developed as a set of rules governing conflict between sovereign States, the first provisions regulating the behavior of parties to internal armed conflicts were nevertheless already included in the Geneva Conventions as far back as 1949 (Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions). internal armed conflicts are those in which government forces are fighting against organized armed groups or such groups are fighting among themselves. International humanitarian law thus binds all parties to an armed conflict: in international conflicts it binds States involved, whereas in internal conflicts it binds the State, as well as the organized armed groups, against it, or among themselves.