Armed groups

The coordination chemistry of free pyridazine and phthalazine or their analogues will not be covered in this chapter. We will only deal with synthetic and coordination chemistry of ligands of Type 1 and Type 2 (Scheme 1) in which the arm group X provides some coordination sites (i.e., one to four sites), Type 3 to Type 7 (Scheme 1) in which the substituted groups (Ri-R3) contain some coordination sites, and a mixed type (Type 8) containing both aromatic and open-chain diazines. The synthesis of some related key precursors to these ligands will also be covered. 

Since the end of the Cold War, the world has seen an increasing number of asymmetric conflicts in a multipolar world. Non-State armed groups, which themselves are often fragmented, together with the constant emergence of new armed groups raise new hurdles for IHL and related assistance and protection efforts. 

State armies function as the extension of States that have ratified the Geneva Conventions non-State armed groups, operating in the vacuum left by weak States, may not recognise or know their duties under IHL. A current example is the public propaganda of ISIS, which deliberately calls for attacks on both soldiers and civilians. 

Article 1(1) of Additional Protocol II provides that the Protocol apphes in armed conflicts which take place in the territory of a High Contracting Party between its armed forces and dissident armed forces or other organized armed groups which, under responsible command, exercise such control over a part of its territory as to enable them to carry out sustained and concerted military operations and to implement this Protocol . 

Decrey Warner E (2013) Engaging with non-state armed groups lessons learned. 36th round table on current issues of international humanitarian law, respecting IHL challenges and perspectives. Institute of international humanitarian law, San Remo, 5-7 Sept 2013. http //www.iihl.org/iihl/Documents/DECREY-WARNER.pdf. Accessed 11 April 2013 Dinstein Y (2010) The conduct of hostilities under the law of international armed conflict, 2nd edn. CUP, Cambridge... 

Roberts A, Sivakumaran S (2012) Lawmaking by nonstate actors engaging armed groups in the creation of international hinnanitarian law. Yale J Int Law 37 107-152 Robson S (2007) The first world war, 2nd edn. Pearson, Harlow... 

Sivakumaran S (2012a) The ownership of international humanitarian law non-state armed groups and the formation of enforcement of IHL rules. In Perrin B (ed) Modem warfare armed groups, private mihtaries, humanitarian organisations, and the law. UBC Press,... 

Humanitarian activities may be carried out in various ways, such as by land, air or sea in various types of territory, such as in a territory of a State occupied by another State or controlled by an armed group, or a State without a government and for various types of persons who do not or no longer take a direct part in hostilities, such as civilians, the wounded and sick, prisoners of war, internees, and other detainees. Whatever the form a humanitarian activity takes, the fact that an international organization takes action in a territory of a State gives rise to the question of whether it has been carried out with full respect of that State s sovereignty. 

So far as international organizations, particularly the United Nations, are concerned, State sovereignty is not limited by international law, including IHL, to such an extent that international organizations are allowed to enter a State s territory without the prior consent of that State. This conclusion also applies in instances where an international organization intends to carry out humanitarian activities in a territory over which the territorial State has lost control, for example, because the enemy State or an armed group has taken control of that territory. 

International humanitarian law provides for certain specific regulations both for the affected state, the armed group as non-state actor, and for third parties, pertaining to the delivery of hnmanitarian assistance. Humanitarian law does not however recognize a general dnty of the sovereign or other parties to provide assistance in... 

Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions merely calls upon the humane treatment of those caught in the conflict by all involved parties. By referring explicitly to all parties, Common Article 3 makes it absolutely clear that this obligation also rests upon armed groups. This assertion has been affirmed on numerous occasions by the Security Council as it calls upon armed groups to abide by their duties under humanitarian law. ... 

Additional Protocol II—although applicable with a threshold of control for armed groups—attempts to supplement these provisions and elaborates in Article 14 that the starvation of civilians as a method of combat is prohibited. The civilian objects indispensible to the survival of the population must be respected, regardless of who in fact controls a part of the territory. Subsequently, concerning the provision of relief through external sources. Article 18 APII provides that ... 

See Human Rights Watch, Syria Armed Groups Send CluldiBn into Battle, (22 June 2014) http //www.hrw.oig/news/2014/06/22/syria-armed-groups-send-children-battle (accessed 3 July 2015). 

Watkin 2010, pp. 690-93 and Pomper 2012, p. 189 (for a discussion of the combat support and combat service support functions common to regttlar armed forces and organized armed groups). See also Watkin 2010, pp. 683-86 (for a discussion of combat function, in contrast to continuous combat function ). Note that even the ICRC Interpretive Guidance 2009, p. 16 links membership to continuous combat function and ultimately a direct part in hostilities. 

Watkin 2010, pp. 691 ( Such a [combat] function would involve combat, combat support, and combat service support functions, carrying arms openly, exercising command over the armed group, carrying out planning related to the conduct of hostilities, or other activities indicative of membership in an armed group ). 

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