Article

The legal characterization of the armed conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq : implications for protection

by Siobhan Wills

• Netherlands international law review, Vol. 58, no. 2, 2011, p. 173-208

English

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The conflict in Afghanistan became non-international with the establishment of the United States' backed government of Hamid Karzai on 19 June 2002 and that the conflict in Iraq became non-international with the establishment of the Iraqi Interim Government on 28 June 2004. The basis for this requalification is Article 2 of the Geneva Conventions read in conjunction with an interpretation of the meaning of ‘state’ (and of its power to authorize a foreign intervention in its own territory) that is inherently and possibly inevitably, political. The downwards qualification from international to non-international of Afghanistan and Iraq from 2001 and 2003 respectively marked loss of protection for persons that were protected by the Geneva Conventions in the earlier stages of the conflict. In particular, there are profound implications related to humanitarian access, the protection of non-nationals from deportation, the protection of detainees, the conduct of hostilities and for the protection of persons transferred into the hands of local authorities.

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