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War Watch
Legal Explainers

Non-international armed conflicts

Non-international armed conflicts (NIAC) involve either a State fighting organized armed group(s), or organized armed groups fighting each other. For a NIAC to exist, two criteria must be met under Article 3 common to the four 1949 Geneva Conventions and customary international law:

  • Intensity of armed violence: there must be ‘protracted armed violence’ – meaning that the violence must have reached a certain level of intensity and regularity.
  • Degree of organization: the armed groups must exhibit a certain degree of organization. State armed forces are presumed to be organized.1ICRC, Updated Commentary on GC I, 2016, paras 493 ff.

The criteria, which are assessed on a case-by-case basis, are used for the purpose of distinguishing an armed conflict from banditry and terrorist acts. According to international case-law, certain indicative factors can be used to assess them, including:

  • For intensity: the number, duration and intensity of individual confrontations; the types of weapons and military equipment used; the material destruction and casualties; the number of refugees and internally displaced persons; the reaction of the government (including the use of force and the application of a legal framework); the reaction and involvement of the international community.
  • Organization: the presence of some kind of command structure; the ability to define a unified military strategy and use military tactics; the ability to plan, coordinate and carry out military operations; the exercise of some kind of territorial control; the capacity to access to weapons and other military equipment; the ability to recruit and train members; the ability to negotiate and conclude ceasefire agreements and peace accords; and the existence of internal discipline mechanism.2See for instance, ICTY, Haradinaj, Trial Chamber, Judgment, IT-04-84-T, 3 April 2008, paras 49 and 60, https://www.refworld.org/jurisprudence/caselaw/icty/2008/en/61839.

In NIACs, Additional Protocol II of 1977 provides more detailed rules than in Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions of 1949. For the Protocol to apply, it is also required that the conflict occur in the territory of a State that is a party to the Protocol and the conflict must be between governmental armed forces and an organized armed group. The armed group must exercise a degree of territorial control that enables them to carry out sustained and concerted military operations and to implement the Protocol.3Art 1(1) AP II.