Defining Armed Conflict in International Humanitarian Law

International Humanitarian Law based on the concepts of jus ad bello, is defined to be the law of war. It requires the political will of states for a situation to be considered as an armed conflict so the law can be force. International humanitarian law distinguishes two types of armed conflict, which are international armed conflicts and non-international armed conflicts.

Talk about International Armed Conflict (IAC), According to the Geneva Conventions of 1949, common article 2 states that:

“In addition to the provisions which shall be implemented in peace-time, the present Convention shall apply to all cases of declared war or of any other armed conflict which may arise between two or more of the High Contracting Parties, even if the state of war is not recognized by one of them.

The Convention shall also apply to all cases of partial or total occupation of the territory of a High Contracting Party, even if the said occupation meets with no armed resistance.”

Additional Protocol I also extend the definition of International armed conflict to include armed conflicts in which peoples are fighting against colonial domination, alien occupation or racist regimes in the exercise of their right to self-determination (wars of national liberation). An example of International Armed Conflict was North Korean-South Korean War in 1950.

Non-International Armed Conflict (NIAC), explained by the Geneva Conventions, common article 3 states that:

“In the case of armed conflict not of an international character occurring in the territory of one of the High Contracting Parties”

These include armed conflicts in which one or more non-governmental armed groups are involved. Depending on the situation, hostilities may occur between governmental armed forces and non-governmental armed groups or between such groups only. Based on the Geneva convention, it can be assumes that armed conflict exist when the situations reaches a certain level that distinguishes it forms of violence such as riots, sporadic and isolated forms of violence.

Criteria that usually being used are:

• First, the hostilities must reach a minimum level of intensity. This may case may happen, for example, when the hostilities are of a collective character or when the government is obliged to use military force against the insurgents, instead of mere police forces.

• Second, non-governmental groups involved in the conflict must be considered as "parties to the conflict", meaning that they possess organized armed forces. This means for example that these forces have to be under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations.

Overall, we can concluded that: International Armed Conflicts exist whenever there is resort to armed force between two or more states (countries) and Non-International Armed Conflicts are protracted armed confrontations occurring between governmental forces and the forces from armed groups. The armed confrontations must reach a minimum level of intensity and the parties involved in the conflict must show a minimum of organization.