Article

Detention operations in non-international armed conflicts between international humanitarian law, human rights law and national standards : a NATO perspective

Steven Hill and Leonard Holzer

• Israel yearbook on human rights, Vol. 49, 2019, p. 116-130

English

Detention poses a challenge to coalitions of States and multinational alliances, such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), when conducting military operations in non-international armed conflicts, as treaty law concerning detention or internment of captured persons in NIACs is still very limited. Part I of this article will first set the historical and legal background of NATO's approach to NIAC detention and Part II will then explain how NATO has dealt with this issue in the circumstances of the Kosovo Forces ('KFOR') and the International Security Assistance Force ('ISAF') in Afghanistan. Building on these past observations, the article's Part III will then outline the three major challenges NATO is facing when conducting detention operations in a NIAC. Finally, the article concludes by suggesting NATO as a forum for reducing legal uncertainty in the field of NIAC detention and by highlighting practical examples of how the Alliance is already taking promising steps in this direction.

• 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. 49, 2019] / publ. under the auspices of the Faculty of Law, Tel Aviv University