The scholarly field on rebel use of sexual violence in armed conflict is divided. While some scholars argue that it principally occurs as a conscious strategy, a weapon of war, others argue that it is primarily a consequence of asymmetrical gender power relations. In this paper it is argued that access to and use of natural resources as means of finance enable rebel actors to commit sexual violence against civilians. As they extract resources from external sources, their accountability to civilians decreases and the use of sexual violence is made more economically viable. To test this, a quantitative analysis of around one hundred rebel actor conflict-episodes was conducted. The results suggest a positive correlation between natural resource financing and sexual violence.

Les conflits armés ont toujours été émaillés de nombreuses exactions commises contre les populations civiles, notamment lorsque la guerre présentait une dimension identitaire ou politique relativement affirmée. C'est encore le cas dans de nombreux conflits contemporains. Le droit international n'a pourtant cessé de se renforcer pour garantir à ces populations une meilleure protection contre les effets des hostilités, notamment par la signature de plusieurs conventions internationales à La Haye ou Genève qui constituent aujourd'hui le socle du droit international humanitaire. Il existe donc un contraste flagrant entre l'état du droit et la protection effective des populations sur le terrain. Pourquoi ? Recentré sur l'analyse de la conflictualité contemporaine, ce travail s'efforce d'en rechercher la cause dans l'évolution des cadres de référence des combattants et dans la manière dont ils influent sur leur définition de l'ennemi et sur leur conception de la place des civils dans la guerre. Il démontre comment l'évolution des causes de conflit comme de la pratique des combattants dans les guerres asymétriques ou déstructurées tend à replacer toujours plus les civils au coeur de la guerre. Cela ne signifie pas pour autant que le droit international humanitaire, adopté pour l'essentiel à l'issue des deux Guerres mondiales et au cours des années 1970, soit obsolète. De fait, au contraire, ses principales règles relatives à la protection des populations civiles sont assez souples pour s'adapter aux défis que posent les conflits contemporains, pour peu que les combattants veuillent les appliquer et en faire une interprétation raisonnable et de bonne foi / Armed conflicts have always been interspersed with numerous abuses committed against the civilian populations, notably when the war was of identity or political nature. This is also the case in number of modern conflicts. International law has however continued to strengthen in order to guarantee better protection to civilians against the effect of hostilities, notably by the signing of several conventions at the Hague and Geneva, which today constitute the basis of international humanitarian law. There is, therefore, a sharp contrast between the state of the law and the effective protection of civilians on the field. Why ? Refocusing on the analysis of modern conflicts, this work attempts to look for the cause in the development of soldier's references and in the way they influence their definition of the enemy and their conception of the role of civilians in war. It demonstrates how the evolution of the causes of conflict and the practices of soldiers in asymmetric and deconstructed conflicts tend to place more and more civilians at the heart of the war. This does not mean that international humanitarian law, adopted for the main part after the two World wars and during the seventies, is obsolete. On the contrary, its principal rules relative to the protection of the civilians are flexible enough to adapt to the challenges of modern conflicts, as long as the soldiers are willing to apply them and interpret them reasonably and honestly

Sexual violence is a well-known phenomenon in armed conflicts. The international attention from scholars and policymakers has substantially expanded during the last decades, but until today a comprehensive understanding of the circumstances that generate this violence is absent. This causes difficulties in the policy rhetoric of the issue, as well as in the development of effective measures to prevent and combat conflict-related sexual violence in current conflicts. This study aims to explore and identify circumstances related to the use of sexual violence by armed groups, and by state forces in particular. The overall purpose is to contribute to an understanding of why state forces commit sexual violence in some armed conflicts and not in others. An analytical framework is created based on existing theoretical concepts and explanations to the varying frequency of sexual violence. Based on this, five hypotheses of possible correlated conditions are created. These conditional factors are: 1) Rule of Law, 2) Other Violence, 3) Ethnic Conflict, 4) Gender Equality, and 5) International Support. The hypotheses are translated into macro-level variables that are systematically applied and compared between ten cases of armed conflicts, five of which have high levels of sexual violence committed by state forces, respectively five with no reports of sexual violence committed by state forces. This is done by a cross-national comparison using descriptive statistics. Four hypotheses are to a varying degree strengthened by this study and the result suggests that sexual violence committed by state forces is more likely to occur; in conflicts with low levels of rule of law; in ethnic conflicts; in conflicts with high levels of other violence, and; in absence of international support. The anticipation is that the results of this study will provide a platform for further conclusive research of casual factors to conflict-related sexual violence.

'International humanitarian law' (IHL) has long differentiated between international and non-international armed conflicts, regulating the latter, at least at the level of treaty law, far less than the former. One of the starkest examples of this is in the case of administrative detention on security grounds or 'internment'. Thus, IHL applicable in international armed conflicts establishes a seemingly robust regime regarding internment. As such, it specifies the limited grounds on which an individual may be interned, the procedural safeguards that must be provided to internees, and the point at which the internee must be released. In the conventional IHL provisions applicable in non-international armed conflicts, on the other hand, no equivalent rules are made explicit. In addition, the application in such situations of international human rights law (IHRL), which also contains procedural rules applicable to detention, is considered by many to be very controversial. This has led to considerable confusion over the current state of the law governing detention in non-international armed conflict, and it is here that some of the most controversial practices and intractable debates within IHL of the last decade have developed. The present thesis seeks to clarify the law here and does so through a comprehensive examination of both IHL and IHRL. It begins with a discussion of the general context in which the thesis falls, i.e. the distinction between international and non-international armed conflicts. This is considered from an historical perspective, considering the basis for the distinction as well as its appropriateness in contemporary international law. Having considered this general question, the thesis then moves on to an examination of the current lex lata with regard to internment in non-international armed conflicts, with a comprehensive examination of both IHL and IHRL. Regarding IHL, it is shown that, whilst there remains a dearth of conventional and customary rules here, one can discern a general prohibition of internment that is not necessary as a result of the conflict. The application of the IHRL rules on detention in non-international conflicts and their interaction with relevant rules of IHL are then explored, with substantial reference to the practice of both states and human rights treaty bodies. It is shown that, absent derogation, human rights treaty rules continue fully to regulate detentions by states in relation to non-international armed conflicts, alongside the minimal rules of IHL. However, it is also demonstrated that the current law remains inadequate in this area. First, there is significant disagreement between the human rights treaty bodies on the extent to which derogation from these rules is permitted. Second, persons detained in non-international conflicts by non-state armed groups or by states with no human rights treaty obligations are protected by the far more basic customary rules in this area. The thesis, therefore, concludes with a set of concrete proposals for developing the law here, in a manner that builds upon and clarifies the current obligations of all states and non-state armed groups.

Magister Legum - LLM / Sexual violence leaves the victims psychologically traumatised and stigmatised in the eyes of its community. Used on a large scale, sexual violence can destabilise a society as a whole and when used during armed conflicts, it serves as a powerful weapon against members of a community. During armed conflicts, sexual violence is widespread and systematically used as a tool of war and this makes sexual violence amount to crimes against humanity, genocide and war crimes. This research paper critically analyses and evaluates sexual violence as an international crime, as well as its prosecution under international criminal law mainly by the International Criminal Court (hereafter ICC), International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (hereafter ICTY) and International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (hereafter ICTR). It discusses the problem of selectivity that can be observed in prosecuting sexual violence that has in fact, left many victims of sexual violence dissatisfied. By doing so, it analyses the law as it is to determine whether the law applied during sexual violence prosecutions is sufficient. The paper also states recommendations that can contribute to the effective prosecution of sexual crimes under international criminal law. / South Africa

Magister Legum - LLM / This mini-thesis analyses the international legal framework governing the protection of the natural environment during armed conflicts. It critically examines the normative rules in international humanitarian law and international environmental law in respect of environmental damage during armed conflicts and it highlights the strengths and shortcomings of international law in this regard. Furthermore, this thesis investigates how the regulatory structures of the African Union (AU) address the problem of environmental damage during armed conflict. It draws on the aforementioned analyses to determine how regional law in Africa differs from the international regime and in what ways the regional framework may serve to complement the international legal regime in order to strengthen the protection of the environment during armed conflict on the continent.

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the relation between two highly relevant documents for the Colombian society: Firstly, The peace agreement between the Colombian Government and the FARC guerrilla. Secondly, the agreement of the authorities of the country to follow and pursuit the new Sustainable Development Goals – Agenda 2030 from United Nations. For this research, an extensive existing literature review was done. Throughout the empirics, the analysis looked at the relation between these two documents to show the level of compatibility for the Sustainable Development agenda in Colombia. This compatibility is important to determine as both documents have a vital importance for the Colombian Society. The first, Peace Agreement, as it is the text that aims to propose the political agenda after more than 50 years of conflict between the authorities and the FARC guerrilla. Secondly, the SDGs – Agenda 2030 is a political agreement that countries in the world will follow to contribute to the sustainability of the planet. Thus, after having the chance to review and analyze both documents, there exist clear synergies between both documents, with the exceptions of certain topics. It can be concluded that there is much room for being optimistic in the case of Colombia, but to keep in mind that the agreements are just that: the entrance to a route that now the whole country needs to take, the path of sustainability.

La thèse identifie les lacunes et les défauts de mise en œuvre des instruments juridiques internationaux applicables dans le contexte des conflits armés (les Conventions de Genève de 1949 et le Statut de la Cour Pénale Internationale) en ce qui concerne la question de la protection du droit à la sante mentale. Une solution pour une meilleure protection de ce droit est proposée, visant à amender les instruments juridiques internationaux en la matière par une nouvelle disposition qui incrimine distinctement les violations du droit à la sante mentale pendant la guerre. La recherche met en évidence la gravite des conséquences de la violation du droit à la sante mentale dans le cadre des conflits armés, en montrant le lien de causalité entre les traumas produits par ces conflits, l'apparition de troubles psychiques, la modification des standards de la normalité dans une collectivité et la prédisposition accrue à des comportements antisociaux. La thèse avance une hypothèse qui explique l'augmentation des taux de criminalité après la guerre par le rôle des traumas psychiques de la population suite aux conflits armes. / The thesis identifies the gaps and shortcomings regarding the implementation of international legal instruments applicable in the context of armed conflict (the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the Statute of the International Criminal Court) in what concerns the protection of the right to mental health. A solution for a better protection of this right is proposed, consisting in amending the relevan international legal instruments with a distinct new provision criminalizing the violations of the rightto mental health during armed conflicts.The research highlights the serious consequences of violating the right to mental health during wartime, showing the causal link between the trauma produced by the conflict, the development of mental disorders, the changes of the "normality" standards of communities and the increased occurrence of antisocial behavior. The thesis proposes a hypothesis that explains the amplification of crime rates after the war by the influence of the psychological trauma suffered by the respective population as a consequence of armed conflict.

"The rise in the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Sudan and Uganda is in no small part, due not only to states' incapacity to protect their own people, but also to a direct attack by states on selected communities, or on insurgent groups. In Sudan, there is a large amount of information pointing to the responsibility of the Sudanese government in the human rights violations committed against the IDPs in Darfur. In Uganda, the majority of the displaced harbour considerable anger towards the government for having forced them out of their homes and then being unable to protect and provide for them, and in many cases being guilty of violations of their rights. The problem is aggravated by the facts that IDPs have no specific set of international instruments or a Convention in their favour, and there is no dedicated UN agency to turn to. The concept of state sovereignty still takes centre stage, and IDPs remain under the 'protection' of their own states, which in many cases are responsible for their plight. International humanitarian assistance is limited to the provision of basic necessities like food, shelter and medicine, while measures that ensure respect for the physical safety and the human rights of IDPs remain inadequate. The Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement particularise general human rights principles to the situation of the internally displaced, however they have no binding authority, and therefore do not bind states, neither are they enforceable by the IDPs. Currently, reliance is placed upon international humanitarian law and the existing international human rights law, but international humanitarian law only applies in situations of armed conflict. Consequently, this study proceeds from the presumption that the governments of Sudan and Uganda have failed to protect the IDPs within their jurisdictions, hence the need for stronger international protection. The study is aimed at addressing the specific problem of the lack of adequate international human rights protection for the IDPs from the time of displacement, to the time displacement ends. Emphasis of the study is placed on displacements resulting from armed conflicts, because these are the most rampant and most problematic in Africa. Darfur and Northern Uganda are the particular focus of this study because they are the most affected regions in Africa today." -- Introduction. / Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2004. / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/academic_pro/llm1/dissertations.html / Centre for Human Rights / LLM

Africa is home to more than 40% of the world’s population of internally displaced persons (IDPs).4 IDPs, according to the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement5, are persons or groups of persons who have been forced to leave their homes or places of habitual residence as a result of – or in order to avoid the effects of – armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights, natural disasters or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognised state border. / Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2010. / A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Law University of Pretoria, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Masters of Law (LLM in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa). Prepared under the supervision of Mr. S Tindifa at the Faculty of Law, Makerere University, Uganda. 2010. / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/ / Centre for Human Rights / LLM