Conflicto

Conflicto armado, definido debajo de normas legales internacionales, se categoriza entre varios tipos de conflicto armado interno y otros tipos de situaciones de conflicto. El derecho internacional se reconoce a por lo menos cuatro tipos de situaciones de conflicto, cada uno gobernado por otro conjunto de normas legales:

1. Situaciones de tensión y disturbios;
2. Conflictos armados internacionales;
3. Guerras de liberación nacional;
4. Conflicto armado interno.

Situaciones de Tensión y Disturbios

El término "tensión interno y disturbios" hace referencia a las situaciones que no llegan a ser un conflicto armado, pero que involucran el uso de la fuerza y otras medidas represivas por parte de un gobierno para mantener o restaurar la orden pública o la seguridad pública. El derecho internacional se aplica en estas situaciones, aunque debe ser notado que los gobiernos están permitidos derogar de o limitar un conjunto restringido de obligaciones debajo del Garantías de Derechos Humanos (DDHH) en el contexto de tensión y disturbios.

Conflicto Armado Internacional

El término "conflicto armado interno" se hace referencia a situaciones en dónde dos o más estados están involucrados en un conflicto armado. En tales situaciones, las provisiones centrales del Derecho Internacional Humanitaria (DIH) se vuelven operativos, particularmente ellos contenidos en las cuatro Convenciones de Ginebra y Prótocolo I a las Convenciones de Ginebra. Además, la mayoría de las garantías de los derechos humanos se mantienen aplicables en tales situaciones, aunque sujetos a los mismos tipos de derogaciones y limitaciones permitidos a gobiernos en situaciones de tensión interno y disturbios.

Guerras de Liberación Nacional

El término "guerras de liberación nacional" se hace referencia a los conflictos armados en dónde "personas están peleando encontra de una dominación colonial y ocupación extranjera y encontra de regimenes racistas en el ejercicio de sus derecho a la autodeterminación." Hablando en términos generales, las mismas provisiones del DIH y DDHH que se aplican en el contexto del conflicto armado internacional aplican por igual en el contexto de estas guerras.

Conflicto Armado Interno

El término "conflicto armado interno" se hace referencia a todos conflictos armados que no se puede caracterizar como conflictos armados internacionales o guerras de liberación nacional. Protocólo II establece que conflictos armados internos "deben tomar lugar en el territorio de una Parte Contractante entre sus fuerzas armadas y las fuerzas armadas disidentes y otros grupos armados organizadios cuales, debajo de un mando responsable, ejercen un control sobre parte de su territorio así para capacitarles mantener operaciones sostenidas y concertadas e implementar (Protocólo II)". La Cámara de Apelaciones del Antiguo Yugoslavia refinió esta definición más aún, en su decisión, Fiscal v. Dusko Tadic a/k/a "Dule".

Normas del DIH y DDHH Aplicables en Conflictos Armados Internos

En el contexto de un conflicto armado interno, existen tres fuentes principales de protección establecido por el DIH

In the context of an internal armed conflict, there are three main sources of IHL protection: (i.) the Martens Clause; (ii.) Common Article 3; and (iii.) Protocol II.[17] The Martens Clause provides that the parties to any armed conflict must act “in accordance with the principles of the law of nations derived from the usages established among civilized peoples, from the laws of humanity and the dictates of public conscience.” [18] Common Article 3 builds upon the Martens Clause, and provides that parties to “armed conflict(s) not of an international character” (i.e., internal armed conflicts) must apply certain minimum standards to “persons taking no active part in the hostilities”.[19] In particular, Common Article 3 establishes an affirmative obligation to collect and care for the wounded and sick, and expressly prohibits four specific categories of acts, viz., "violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture; taking of hostages; outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment; and the passing of sentences and the carrying out of executions without previous judgment pronounced by a regularly constituted court, affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples.”

Protocol II improves upon the admittedly “minimum” protections afforded by both the Martens Clause and Common Article 3, although its coverage is certainly not as broad in scope as the Geneva Conventions or Protocol I. For the purposes of this paper, the most important components of Protocol II are Part II (provisions concerning humane treatment of persons who do not take a direct part in or who have ceased to take part in hostilities), Part III (provisions concerning the wounded, sick, and shipwrecked, and medical and religious personnel) and Part IV (provisions concerning the civilian population). Regarding Part II, Article 4(2) supplements the prohibitions contained in Common Article 3 by adding prohibitions against, inter alia, collective punishment, terrorism, slavery, pillage, and threats to carry out the same acts. Part II also provides for detailed special protections for children (Art. 4(3)) and persons whose liberty has been restricted (Art. 5), as well as setting out a fairly rigorous set of standards regarding the prosecution and punishment of criminal offences related to the conflict (Art. 6). With respect to Part IV, the most relevant provisions for the purposes of this paper are Articles 13(2) (prohibiting attacks or violent threats against civilians), 14 (prohibiting starvation of civilians), 15 (protecting works containing dangerous forces) and 17 (prohibiting forced displacements of civilians).

With respect to the protections afforded by IHRL in the context of internal armed conflicts, there is a much wider variety of relevant and applicable sources to draw from. The primary IHRL instruments are the UN Charter,[20] and the consolidated corpus of IHRL known as the International Bill of Human Rights, which encompasses the Universal Declaration, the ICESCR, the ICCPR, and the Optional Protocol to the ICCPR.[21] In addition to these instruments, there are many other relevant instruments including, inter alia, the Genocide Convention, the Slavery Convention, the Torture Convention, the CRC, the CEDAW, the CERD and the Refugee Convention. There are also a variety of relevant regional instruments including, inter alia, the European Convention on Human Rights, the American Convention on Human Rights, and the African Charter of Human and Peoples' Rights.

It must be recalled, however, that in the context of an internal armed conflict, governments are entitled to restrict or suspend the exercise of many of the rights established under these IHRL instruments. First, as noted earlier, some IHRL rights are not established as absolute entitlements, but rather as rights subject to reasonable restrictions in order to protect, inter alia, public safety.[22] Second, governments may temporarily suspend certain rights altogether in cases where a treaty contains a separate “derogation clause”. Fortunately, most derogation clauses provide that certain rights – including, inter alia, the right to life, and the prohibitions against torture, slavery, and retroactive application of penal law - cannot be made the subject of derogation.[23] Moreover, certain IHRL treaties do not permit derogations at all.[24]