Part II International Humanitarian Law, 2 Internment in International Armed Conflict under IHL

Subject(s):

Detention — Combatants, lawful — Combatants, unlawful — Prisoners of war — Armed conflict, international — Unlawful confinement — Geneva Conventions 1949 — Geneva Conventions 1949 Additional Protocol 1

This chapter considers the procedural rules applicable to internment under international humanitarian law (IHL) in international armed conflicts. It begins by considering the different statuses of combatant and civilian that structure the law of international armed conflict. For each of these categories of person, the chapter then examines the rules relating to the grounds for internment, the review procedures that must be followed when interning, and the point at which internment must cease; together, these categories of rules constitute what are termed throughout this book as the ‘procedural’ rules applicable to internment. These rules are examined in light of their elaboration in state practice, commentaries, and international and domestic jurisprudence. In so doing, the chapter provides a frame of reference for the remainder of the book, employing this framework to examine the existence or otherwise of equivalent rules for non-international armed conflicts.