The material scope of international humanitarian law

Abstract

The study sought to define the material scope of international humanitarian law, which is currently represented in: international armed conflicts, and non-international armed conflicts, and showed that international armed conflict is achieved in: - A declared state of war or any other armed conflict between two or more states. - Situations of partial or total occupation of the territory of a country, even if such occupation does not meet with armed resistance. - The struggle of peoples against foreign occupation, and against racist regimes, in pursuit of their right to self-determination and independence. The non-international armed conflict is: Armed conflict that takes place in the territory of a State, when there is a long-term conflict, between governmental authorities and armed or organized groups, or between these groups, it is important that this conflict take a long time to be considered an armed conflict not of an international character. Among the forms of this type of conflict are: civil war, disturbances, tensions and internal acts of violence. The study concluded that the developments that affected the structure of the international legal system, weakened the basis of the distinction based on traditional international law between international armed conflicts and non-international armed conflicts, when it comes to the order to apply the rules of international humanitarian law in the face of it.