Exploring the International Humanitarian Law Status of Foreign Fighters in the Ukrainian International Legion of Territorial Defence
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17159/1727-3781/2024/v27i0a14600Keywords:
Mercenaries, combatants, prisoner of war, International Legion of Territorial Defence, Ukraine, RussiaAbstract
This paper explores the international humanitarian law classification which applies to foreign fighters that have been enlisted in the Ukrainian International Legion of Territorial Defence pursuant to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The paper explains the legal rights, obligations and consequences which attach to mercenary, combatant and prisoner of war status; and explores how these foreign members of the Ukrainian International Legion of Territorial Defence fit into this legal landscape. This paper challenges the legality of Russia's decision to classify these individuals as mercenaries. The paper supports the argument that these foreign members of the Ukrainian International Legion of Territorial Defence are entitled to combatant status including full combatant immunity from prosecution upon capture. The paper explores the prisoner of war rights and protections which these individuals should be afforded upon capture and details their denial. The paper re-iterates the international humanitarian law fair trial guarantees which are activated when combatants fall into enemy hands and questions the procedural legality of the trials being conducted in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic and Russia.
Downloads
References
Bibliography
Literature
Abraham G “’Essential Liberty” versus “Temporary Safety’: The Guantanamo Bay Internees and Combatant Status” 2004 121 SALJ 829
Aldrich G “New Life for the Laws of War” 1981 75 American Journal of International Law 773 DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/2201353
Banks W “Introduction” in Banks W (ed) New Battlefields Old Laws: Critical Debates on Asymmetric Warfare (Columbia University Press ebook 2011) DOI: https://doi.org/10.7312/columbia/9780231152358.001.0001
Bassiouni MC “The New Wars and the Crisis of Compliance with the Law of Armed Conflict by Non-State Actors” 2008 98:3 Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 711
Berman N “Privileging Combat? Contemporary Conflict and the Legal Construction of War” 2004 43 Columbia Journal of Transnational Law 1
Blank LR “Updating the Commander’s Toolbox: New Tools for Operationalising the Law of Armed Conflict” 2010 1:3 Prism 59
Bothe M Partsch KJ and Solf W New Rules for Victims of Armed Conflicts: Commentary on the Two 1977 Protocols Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 (Martinus Nijhoff 1982) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004248137
Bosch S “Private Security Contractors and International Humanitarian Law – A Skirmish for Recognition in International Armed Conflicts” 2007 16:4 ASR 34-52 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10246029.2007.9627443
Bosch S “Private Security Contractors and State Responsibility : Are States Exempt from Responsibility for Violations of Humanitarian Law Perpetrated by Private Security Contractors? 2009 41:3 CILSA 353-382
Bosch S The Combatant Status of Non-State Actors in International Armed Conflicts, in Light of the Notion of Direct Participation in Hostilities (PhD-thesis University of KwaZulu-Natal 2012)
Brough MW “Combatant, Noncombatant, Criminal: The Importance of Distinction” 2004 11 Ethical Perspectives 176 DOI: https://doi.org/10.2143/EP.11.2.504946
Cameron L “Private Military Companies: Their Status Under International Humanitarian Law and its Impact on their Regulation” 2006 88:863 IRRC 573 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1816383106000683
Cowling M and Bosch S, “Combatant Status at Guantanamo Bay – International Humanitarian Law Detained Incommunicado” 2009 42:1 CILSA 1
Dinstein Y The Conduct of Hostilities under the Law of International Armed Conflict 1st ed (Cambridge University Press 2004) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511817182
Fallah K “Corporate Actors: The Legal Status of Mercenaries in Armed Conflict” 2006 88:863 IRRC 599 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1816383106000695
Francovich E “Fighting Another Country’s War, Two Spokane-Area Men Join Flood of Foreign Fighters in Ukraine” The Spokesman (15 May 2022) https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2022/may/15/fighting-another-countrys-war-two-spokane-area-men/ accessed 23 August 2022
Greenwood C “Customary Law Status of the 1977 Additional Protocols” in Delissen A, and Tanja GJ (eds) Humanitarian Law of Armed Conflict: Challenges Ahead (TMC Asser Instituut/Martinus Nijhoff 1991)
Henckaerts JM and Doswald-Beck L (eds) Customary International Humanitarian Law Volume 1: Rules (Cambridge University Press 2005) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511804700
ICRC (undated) Commentary on Additional Protocol 1 https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/applic/ihl/ihl.nsf/1a13044f3bbb5b8ec12563fb0066f226/ffc84b7639b26f93c12563cd00434156 accessed 18 August 2022
ICRC (undated) IHL Database – Russian Federation https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/applic/ihl/ihl.nsf/vwTreatiesHistoricalByCountrySelected.xsp?xp_countrySelected=RU accessed 18 August 2022
ICRC (2020) Interpretive Guide on the Notion of Direct Participation in Hostilities under IHL (Interpretive Guide) https://www.icrc.org/en/publication/0990-interpretive-guidance-notion-direct-participation-hostilities-under-internationalaccessed accessed 18 August 2022
Ipsen K “Combatants and Non-combatants” in Fleck D (ed) The Handbook of Humanitarian Law in Armed Conflict 1st ed (Oxford University Press 1995)
Ipsen K “Combatants and Non-combatants” in Fleck D (ed) The Handbook of Humanitarian Law in Armed Conflict (Oxford University Press 2008)
Jensen ET, “Direct Participation in Hostilities” in Banks WC (ed) New Battlefields Old Laws: Critical Debates on Asymmetric Warfare (Columbia University Press ebook version 2011) DOI: https://doi.org/10.7312/columbia/9780231152358.003.0005
Kalshoven F and Zegveld L Constraints on the Waging of War: An Introduction to International Humanitarian Law 4th ed (Cambridge University Press 2011) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511995231
Kidane W “The Status of Private Military Contractors under International Humanitarian Law” 2010 38:3 Denver Journal of International Law and Policy 361
Maogoto JM and Sheehy B “Contemporary Private Military Firms under International Law: An Unregulated ‘Gold Rush’“ 2006 26:2 Adelaide Law Review 245
Marshall A “For Foreign Fighters, Ukraine Offers Purpose, Camaraderie and a Cause” Reuters (7 March 2022) https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/foreign-fighters-ukraine-offers-purpose-camaraderie-cause-2022-03-07/ accessed 18 August 2022
Melzer N Targeted Killings in International Law (Oxford University Press 2009) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199533169.001.0001
Pilloud C Sandoz Y and Zimmermann B ICRC Commentary on Additional Protocols of 8 June 1977 to the Geneva Convention of 12 August 1949 (Martinus Nijhoff 1987)
Pfanner T “Military Uniforms and the Law of War” 2004 86 IRRC 93 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1560775500180113
Ricou Heaton J “Civilians at War: Re-examining the Status of Civilians Accompanying the Armed Forces” 2005 57 Air Force Law Review 155
Rogers APV “Unequal Combat and the Law of War” 2004 7 Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law 3 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1389135904000030
Solis G The Law of Armed Conflict: International Humanitarian Law in War (Cambridge University Press 2010) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511757839
United Nations (2016) Report of the Working Group on the Use of Mercenaries as a Means of Violating Human Rights and Impeding the Exercise of the Right of Peoples to Self-Determination on its mission to Ukraine: https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/847427?ln=zh_CN accessed 18 August 2022
Watkin K “Warriors Without Rights? Combatants, Unprivileged Belligerents, and the Struggle over Legitimacy” 2005 Winter Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research, Harvard University Occasional Paper Series No 2
Watkin K “Opportunity Lost: Organised Armed Groups and the ICRC ‘Direct Participation in Hostilities’ Interpretive Guide” 2010 42 International Law and Politics 641
Wright R “Will Mercenaries and Foreign Fighters Change the Course of Ukraine’s War?” New Yorker (5 April 2022) https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/will-mercenaries-and-foreign-fighters-change-the-course-of-ukraines-war accessed 18 August 2022
Zachary S “Between the Geneva Conventions: Where does the Unlawful Combatant Belong?” 2005 38 Israel Law Review 378-417 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021223700012772
International instruments
Regulations Respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land, Annex to the Hague Convention IV of 18 October 1907 (Hague Regulations HR) 1910 UK Treaty Series 9 <http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/full/195> accessed 8 June 2022
Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of Wounded, Sick and Shipwrecked Members of Armed Forces at Sea (GC II) of 12 August 1949 (1950) 75 UN Treaty Series 85
Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War (GC III) of 12 August 1949 (1950) 75 UN Treaty Series 135
Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and Relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (AP I) (1979) 1125 UN Treaty Series 1391
Convention for the Elimination of Mercenarism in Africa OAU CM/817 (XXXIX) Annex II Rev. 3 https://treaties.un.org/doc/publication/unts/volume%201490/volume-1490-i-25573-english.pdf accessed 8 June 2022
International Convention Against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries (UN Mercenary Convention) A/RES/44/34 (1989) 2163 UN Treaty Series 75
Government publications
Foreign Commonwealth Office “Private Military Companies: Options for Regulation” (Green paper) (2002) <http://www.fco.gov.uk/resources/en/pdf/pdf4/fco_pdf_privatemilitarycompanies> accessed 8 June 2022
Internet sources
Cameron L 2007 International Humanitarian Law and the Regulation of Private Military Companies Plenary Lecture at Conference on Non-State Actors as Standard Setters: The Erosion of the Public–Private Divide (Switzerland) http://www.baselgovernance.org/fileadmin/docs/pdfs/Nonstate/Cameron.pdf accessed 8 June 2022
Dworkin A 2006 Guerilla War, Deadly Deception, and Urban Combat http://www.crimesofwar.org/print/onnews/iraq-guerilla-print.html accessed 8 June 2022
Goldman R and Tittemore B 2002 Unprivileged Combatants and the Hostilities in Afghanistan: Their Status and Rights under International Humanitarian and Human Rights Law ASIL Task Force Paper http://www.asil.org/taskforce/goldman.pdf accessed 8 June 2022
Nuzov I 2022 Mercenary or Combatant? Ukraine’s International Legion of Territorial Defence under International Humanitarian Law European Journal of Internal Law: Talk! https://www.ejiltalk.org/mercenary-or-combatant-ukraines-international-legion-of-territorial-defense-under-international-humanitarian-law/ accessed 2 June 2022
President of Ukraine official website 2022 Appeal to Foreign Citizens to Help Ukraine in Fighting Against Russia’s Aggression https://www.president.gov.ua/en/news/zvernennya-do-gromadyan-inozemnih-derzhav-yaki-pragnut-dopom-73213 accessed 19 May 2022
Ratner S 2003 Rethinking the Geneva Conventions http://www.crimesofwar/print/expert/gc-ratner-print.html accessed 8 June 2022
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Shannon Bosch
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
.png){kind=spacer}