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
was under the ‘continuing obligation to ensure respect for the rights recognized
in the Covenant in relation to the population of Transnistria within the limits of its
effective power’. 72
Scholars generally support the idea that ANSAs that exercise territorial control
or de facto governmental authority have human rights obligations. Indeed, the
need to regulate the relationship between those who govern and those who
are governed, which many consider underpins human rights law, justifies the
application of that law. 73
Box 7. The position on ANSAs of the Committee on the
Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women
In its General Recommendation No 30 of 18 October 2013 on women in
conflict prevention, conflict and post-conflict situations, the Committee
on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)
stated: ‘Under international human rights law, although non-State actors
cannot become parties to the Convention, the Committee notes that under
certain circumstances, in particular where an armed group with an identifiable
political structure exercises significant control over territory and population,
non-State actors are obliged to respect international human rights’. The
Committee went on to urge ‘non-State actors such as armed groups: (a) to
respect women’s rights in conflict and post-conflict situations, in line with
the Convention; (b) to commit themselves to abide by codes of conduct on
human rights and the prohibition of all forms of gender-based violence’.
Source. CEDAW, General Recommendation No 30 on women in conflict prevention, conflict and
post-conflict situations, CEDAW/C/GC/30, 18 October 2013, §16 and §18.
72 See CCPR/C/MDA/CO/2 (2009), §5.
73 See for instance N. Rodley, ‘Can Armed Opposition Groups Violate Human Rights’, in K. E. Mahoney
and P. Mahoney (ed), Human Rights in the Twenty-First Century: A Global Challenge, Martinus Nijhoff,
1993, p 297-318; and L. Zegveld, The Accountability of Armed Opposition Groups in International Law,
Cambridge University Press, 2002.