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Engaging armed groups at the International Committee of the Red Cross: Challenges, opportunities and COVID-19

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 November 2021

Irénée Herbet  and
Jérôme Drevon
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Abstract

This article examines the presence of 605 armed groups in today's conflict environment by bringing new evidence based on internal research. It looks in particular at the way these non-State entities provide varying degrees of services to the population in the spaces that they control, and how this might impact the way a humanitarian organization like the ICRC engages with them in a dialogue over time. This model of analysis is then used to situate and better explain armed groups’ positions on the COVID crisis.

Keywords

non-State armed groupsCOVID-19dialoguecivilian populationshumanitarian actionhumanitarian negotiationengagement
Type
Research Article
Information
International Review of the Red Cross , Volume 102 , Issue 915: Non-State armed groups , December 2020 , pp. 1021 - 1031
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the ICRC.

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References

1 The ICRC used an internal working definition of armed groups as “broad range of groups with varying goals, structures, doctrines, funding sources, military capacity and degree of territorial control. It denotes a group that is not recognized as a State, but has the capacity to cause violence that is of humanitarian concern. Included in this broad operational category are ‘non-State armed groups’ (NSAGs) that qualify as a party to a non-international armed conflict and are therefore bound by international humanitarian law.”

2 For a legal discussion on the issue, see ICRC position paper: Nikolic, Jelena, Herbet, Irénée and Rodenhäuser, Tilman, “ICRC Engagement with Non-State Armed Groups: Why and How”, Humanitarian Law & Policy, 2021Google Scholar, available at: https://blogs.icrc.org/law-and-policy/2021/03/04/icrc-engagement-non-state-armed-groups/?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=social&linkId=100000035636190 (all internet references were accessed in October 2021).

3 The ICRC considers that it becomes a “neutral intermediary” when it acts as a third party between two or several parties in dispute and with their agreement in order to facilitate the resolution of the dispute or the implementation of a settlement agreement.

4 Not necessarily all of these armed groups are a party to a non-international armed conflict for the purposes of IHL.

5 All the data reported in this article are drawn from our internal reports.

6 See, for example, ICRC, The Roots of Restraint in War, Geneva, 2018Google Scholar, available at: https://www.icrc.org/en/publication/roots-restraint-war.

7 ICRC, “ICRC: Study Shows More the Conflicts, Greater the Danger for People”, News Release, Geneva, 2018, available at: https://www.icrc.org/en/document/icrc-more-conflicts-more-sides-conflict-equal-greater-danger-study.

8 Support relationships are a major feature of contemporary warfare; more information can be found at: IRC, Allies, Partners and Proxies: Managing Support Relationships in Armed Conflict to Reduce the Human Cost of War, Geneva, 2021, available at: https://www.icrc.org/en/publication/4498-allies-partners-and-proxies-managing-support-relationships-armed-conflict-reduce.

9 For example, Moghadam, Assaf, Nexus of Global Jihad: Understanding Cooperation Among Terrorist Actors, Columbia University Press, New York, 2017CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

10 Nikolic, Jelena, de Saint Maurice, Thomas and Ferraro, Tristan, “Aggregated Intensity: Classifying Coalitions of Non-State Armed Groups”, Humanitarian Law & Policy, 2020Google Scholar, available at: https://blogs.icrc.org/law-and-policy/2020/10/07/aggregated-intensity-classifying-coalitions-non-state-armed-groups/.

11 The changes induced by the arrival of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan in Kabul are not taken into consideration by this article whose data and writing predate 15 August 2021. However, the order of magnitude conveyed by the overall figures would not be significantly changed.

12 This preliminary estimate is aggregated from the ICRC’s delegations worldwide.

13 For a full legal discussion on this issue, see Tilman Rodenhäuser, “The Legal Protection of Persons Living Under the Control of Non-State Armed Groups” in this edition of the International Review of the Red Cross.

14 The ICRC previously published research on this theme, above note 6.

15 Above note 11.

16 Armed groups usually evolve in larger social movements that can be based on religious, nationalist or other ideological foundations. Intensive competition within the same social movement can exacerbate armed groups’ contending positions on COVID-19.