InBrief7_web

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Human Rights Obligations of Armed Non-State Actors:
An Exploration of the Practice of the UN Human Rights Council
by international humanitarian law, individuals remain under the protection of
international law guaranteeing fundamental human rights. All parties are bound
to respect fundamental human rights under the scrutiny of the international
community.’ 62
The Commission of Inquiry on Syria also addressed the issue of ANSAs’
responsibility in situations where IHL is not applicable. In February 2012, the
Free Syrian Army (FSA) did not exercise any effective control over territory and
the Commission considered that IHL was not yet applicable, leaving HRL as the
only normative framework to assess its conduct. In its report, the Commission
affirmed that, ‘at a minimum, human rights obligations constituting peremptory
international law (jus cogens) bind States, individuals and non-State collective
entities, including armed groups. Acts violating jus cogens – for instance, torture
or enforced disappearances – can never be justified.’ 63
Box 5. ANSAs and international crimes
International criminal law establishes the criminal responsibility of individual
members of armed groups when international crimes have been perpetrated,
including international crimes not committed in the context of an armed
conflict, which are therefore outside the ambit of international humanitarian
law. Examples include the crime of genocide and crimes against humanity,
situations in which massive and criminal human rights violations occur.
62 Institut de Droit International, The Application of International Humanitarian Law and Fundamental
Human Rights, in Armed Conflicts in which Non-State Entities are Parties, Berlin session, 1999, Article
X. No definition of what constitutes ‘fundamental human rights’ has been agreed, nor has it been settled
which human rights norms are part of jus cogens. In its commentary on the Draft articles on State
Responsibility, the International Law Commission has identified as peremptory norms of international
law the ‘prohibitions of aggression, genocide, slavery, racial discrimination, crimes against humanity and
torture, and the right to self-determination’ (Commentary on Article 26, in Yearbook of the International Law
Commission Draft Articles on Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts, with commentaries,
2001, Vol. 2, Part Two, p 85). However, this list is exemplary rather than definitive. The UN Human Rights
Committee has identified the following acts that violate jus cogens norms: arbitrary deprivation of life,
torture and inhuman or degrading treatment, taking hostages, imposing collective punishments, arbitrary
deprivation of liberty, and deviating from fundamental principles of fair trial, including the presumption of
innocence. See Human Rights Committee, General Comment No. 29: States of Emergency (Article 4),
CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add.11, 31 August 2001.
63 Report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic,
A/HRC/19/69, §106. See T. Rodenhäuser, ‘Human Rights Obligations of Non-State Armed Groups in other
situations of violence: The Syria Example’, International Humanitarian Legal Studies 3 (2012), 263-290.