...Kenya, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Uganda‘ (2015) 96(894) International Review of the Red Cross 539 ICRC, ‘ICRC Explainer: What Does International Law Say about Universal Jurisdiction for War Crimes Committed in Non-International Armed Conflicts?‘ (30 August 2022) ICRC, ‘Universal Jurisdiction over War Crimes – Factsheet‘ 21 May 2021 4. Impact🔗 The online availability of an accessible and user-friendly document such as the Guidebook helps consolidate the current international law relevant to CRSV. We hope to...

...of International Armed Conflicts (Geneva, 8 June 1977) (API) Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts (Geneva, 8 June 1977) (APII) Customary International Humanitarian Law J M Henckaerts and L Doswald-Beck, Customary International Humanitarian Law, Volume I: Rules (ICRC and Cambridge University Press 2005) (Customary IHL Study) Note to reader Because IHRL applies in armed conflict alongside IHL and, importantly, provides......was further codified in the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their two Additional Protocols of 1977, various conventions and protocols dealing with specific types of weapons used in warfare, and conventions aimed at ensuring respect for certain rights, such as children and cultural property, during armed conflict.4 The four Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocol I confer on the ICRC a specific mandate in the event of international armed conflict: ‘subject to the consent of......the Parties to the conflict concerned’, the ICRC may ‘undertake humanitarian activities for the protection of wounded and sick, medical personnel and chaplains, and for their relief’.5 In the event of non-international armed conflict, the ICRC may similarly ‘offer its services to the Parties to the conflict’.6 Beyond direct humanitarian action, the ICRC is tasked with working for the understanding and dissemination of knowledge of IHL and preparing ‘any development thereof’.7 Where an obligation in......to rape, enforced prostitution and ‘any form of indecent assault’,8 stipulate that persons taking no active part in the hostilities must be treated humanely,9 prohibit violence to person including cruel treatment and torture, and prohibit outrages upon personal dignity – all of which encompass sexual violence.10 Additional Protocol I, which applies to international armed conflicts (IAC) and is a part of customary international law, prohibits ‘outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment,......enforced prostitution and any form of indecent assault’,11 as well as ‘rape, forced prostitution and any other form of assault.12 Article 4(2)(e) of Additional Protocol II, which is applicable to non-international armed conflicts (NIAC), prohibits ‘outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment, rape, enforced prostitution and any form of indecent assault’. However, the customary international law status of Additional Protocol II is contested and not all States are Parties. States that have...

...themselves’.16 The Committee has stated that the term ‘conflict’ can be interpreted to include a variety of circumstances: ‘conflict prevention, international and non-international armed conflicts, situations of foreign occupation and other forms of occupation and the post-conflict phase’.17 The meaning of ‘conflict’ under the CEDAW is more extensive than in IHL, as it may also cover ‘internal disturbances, protracted and low-intensity civil strife, political strife, ethnic and communal violence, states of emergency and suppression of mass......international and non-international armed conflict, the CEDAW and IHL ‘apply concurrently and their different protections are complementary’.21 II. Legal Framework🔗 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women General Recommendations Decisions Reports Concluding Observations Note to reader On the authoritativeness and the question of bindingness of the Committee’s work,...

...international and non-international armed conflicts’.53 A receiving State should have demonstrated certain essential measures to prevent and prohibit torture throughout the entire territory under its jurisdiction, control or authority, such as: Clear legislative provisions on the absolute prohibition of torture and its punishment with adequate penalties that are not subject to statutes of limitations, amnesty or pardon; Measures to put an end to impunity for acts of torture, violence and other illegal practices committed by...

...scope of article 3 (see obligation III.1),7 which prohibits torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (“ill-treatment”). Note to reader The ECtHR has primarily addressed sexual violence through the lens of article 3. As such, all references to torture and ill-treatment in this subchapter encompass CRSV. Following the provisions of the Geneva Conventions,8 the ECtHR has defined armed conflict as an international conflict or a non-international armed conflict between a State and a non-State actor that...

...conflict, and is complementary to international humanitarian law.25 International humanitarian law does not prevent the application of international human rights law’.26 International human rights law is fully in force during international or non-international armed conflicts.27 Accordingly, sexual violence need not be conflict-related for the Inter-American Conventions to apply.28 Further, the prohibition of torture and ill-treatment is absolute and non-derogable, even in situations ‘such as war, threat of war, the fight against terrorism or any other crime, internal states...

...the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (API) Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts (APII) International humanitarian law (IHL) may be enforced in a variety of ways. In the following subsections, various enforcement mechanisms are explained. However, before doing so, the unique role of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in international armed conflicts (IACs) and non-international armed conflicts...