InBrief7_web

10
Human Rights Obligations of Armed Non-State Actors:
An Exploration of the Practice of the UN Human Rights Council
in the Syrian Arab Republic. In that resolution, the Council expressed its grave
‘concern at allegations of torture in detention facilities controlled by non-State
armed groups, and stresses that such acts constitute violations of international
humanitarian law and abuses of human rights’. 22
Successive resolutions on the same country often adopt identical wording. In
several resolutions on Syria, for instance, the Council ‘strongly condemns the
terrorist acts and violence committed against civilians by the so-called Islamic
State in Iraq and the Levant (Daesh), al-Nusrah Front and other extremist groups,
and their continued gross, systematic and widespread abuses of human rights law
and violations of international humanitarian law’. (Resolution A/HRC/RES/30/10,
13 October 2015, para. 4; see also A/HRC/RES/29/16, 22 July 2015, para. 8). 23
Similarly, resolutions on Sudan often call ‘upon all parties … to respect all human
rights and fundamental freedoms’. 24
In contrast, several country-specific Special Procedures mandates prefer to
speak of ‘violations’ when they refer to ANSAs. In A/HRC/7/25 (summary), the
Independent Expert on the Democratic Republic of the Congo referred to ‘massive
human rights violations of armed groups’. In A/HRC/19/67, the Special Rapporteur
on Myanmar referred to serious violations by non-state armed groups and called
on them to ‘ensure respect for international human rights and humanitarian law’
(§59, §60, §95). Referring to the LTTE and the Karuna faction of the Tamil Makkal
Viduthalai Pulikal armed group (TMVP-Karuna], the Special Rapporteur on Torture
noted that ‘the most serious allegations of human rights violations that come
to light, including those related to torture and ill-treatment, are in relation to the
conflict and are alleged to be committed by both government and non-State
forces, including the LTTE and the TMVP-Karuna group’. 25 In relation to the Al-
Shabaab armed group, the Independent Expert on Human Rights in Somalia found
that: ‘Al-Shabaab … continues to perpetrate serious violations of humanitarian
and human rights law, including summary executions of civilians associated with
the Government, unlawful arrest and detention and acts amounting to torture and
other inhumane, cruel and degrading practices, such as flogging, amputation and
stoning’. 26
22 A/HRC/RES/27/16, §11.
23 A/HRC/RES/30/10, 13 October 2015, §4; also A/HRC/RES/29/16, 22 July 2015, §8.
24 A/HRC/RES/24/28, 8 October 2013, §13; A/HRC/RES/21/27, 15 October 2012, §12;
A/HRC/RES/18/16, 14 October 2011, §8.
25 A/HRC/7/3/Add.6.
26 A/HRC/18/48, §31.