Article

Unprivileged (unlawful) belligerents captured on a battlefield and the Geneva Conventions

by Yutaka Arai-Takahashi

• Israel yearbook on human rights, Vol. 48, 2018, p. 63-103

English

This article discusses so-called ‘unprivileged/unlawful belligerents/combatants’, essentially those persons who take part in hostilities without fulfilling the conditions spelled out in Article 4A of the Geneva Prisoners of War Convention (the “GCIII”) or Articles 43-44 of the API. This paper defines those unprivileged belligerents who fall into an enemy’s hands in a combat zone of their home State (or of their co-belligerent State) as ‘(homeland) battlefield unprivileged belligerents’. It explores whether the GCIV serves as a gap-filler for such battlefield unprivileged belligerents who are excluded from the framework of the GCIII. The outcomes of this author’s research will be divided into two papers: (1) this paper that focuses on the interpretation of the GCIV with a view to securing guarantees for “(homeland) battlefield unprivileged belligerents”; and (2) the second paper, published in this Yearbook next year, which will trace at length the legislative history of the GCIII and the GCIV.

• Full text : restricted access (ICRC)

• Israel yearbook on human rights / publ. under the auspices of the Faculty of Law, Tel Aviv University
• Israel yearbook on human rights [Vol. 48, 2018] / publ. under the auspices of the Faculty of Law, Tel Aviv University