A Normative Framing of the ‘Foreign Fighter’ in Contemporary Armed Conflicts (Published)
With its unsettled conceptualisation, the notion of a foreign fighter has garnered renewed attention this Century due to the large numbers of non-nationals involved in hostilities in places such as Syria and Ukraine. Unsurprisingly, the use of foreign fighters has often drawn strong reactions from adversaries on the receiving end who often term them ‘mercenaries’ or ‘foreign terrorists’ and usually assert a right to subject captured foreign fighters to unilateral treatment standards. Some States of origin have also rushed to strip their nationals participating in armed conflicts abroad of their citizenship. In light of this tendency to resort to extra normative approaches, the Paper uses doctrinal research methods to explore the position of foreign fighters under international humanitarian law, as the lex specialis for armed conflicts and human rights law, as appropriate. It advocates that policymakers and legal commentators always view foreign fighters through the prism of relevant legal norms.
Keywords: Armed conflict, Foreign fighter, Syria, Ukraine, human rights law, international humanitarian law
Analysis of the Application of International Humanitarian Law in United Nations Mission in Mali (Published)
The whole essence of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) is to reduce the impact of armed conflicts on humanity. The application of IHL in UN is mainly hinged on the Observance by United Nations forces of international humanitarian law. This paper analysed the application of IHL by the United Nations Mission in Mali (MINUSMA). The research problem is that the application of IHL by MINUSMA troops instead of assisting the peace process has been used by some of the non-state armed groups in the armed conflict as a weak point to attack more civilians being protected by the troops and even the peacekeepers themselves, inflicting more casualties on them. The objective of the research is to highlight those areas that make the UN troops more vulnerable to the non-state armed groups’ attacks by the application of IHL with a view to suggesting solutions. Doctrinal and teleological research methods were used in the work. Doctrinal through consulting primary and secondary legal authorities and teleological from the experience of the author as a former Force Legal Adviser of the mission. The paper found among others that the application of IHL in the mission is lopsided in the sense that no one checks the non-state armed groups who do not respect the law. There are also different legal jurisdictions of the troops which contribute to unequal application of the law by all troops. The paper recommended among others, full implementation of peace enforcement by the mission and enhancement of pre-deployment training on IHL for peacekeepers.
Citation: Emmanuel Onyekachi Ugwu (2021) Analysis of the Application of International Humanitarian Law in United Nations Mission in Mali, Global Journal of Politics and Law Research, Vol.9, No.6, pp.33-46
Keywords: MINUSMA, Mali, United Nations, armed groups, international humanitarian law, peacekeeping