War Crimes, “Terrorism”, ... : Powerful States and Movements of Resistance

Planned Conference, to be held in 2009, on the theme:

War Crimes, “Terrorism”, Powerful States and Movements of Resistance

The aim of this Conference is to lead an in-depth reflection, with the participation of personalities representing movements of resistance, lawyers, historians …, on the question of asymmetrical wars in which, in response to acts of aggression and violence suffered by their people, movements of resistance take action against military targets but also breach the law of armed conflict to varying degrees of gravity. Are such breaches inevitable by reason of the dissymmetry of means and in response to war crimes committed by powerful States? How does International Humanitarian Law, in particular the Additional Protocol I of 1977 to the Geneva Conventions, address the acts of each of these parties, how should it be interpreted and applied? In relation to the Protocol I, is the regression of humanitarian law to the advantage of powerful States as found in the Statute of the International Criminal Court, in particular regarding attacks causing excessive loss of civilian life, acceptable?

This project wishes in particular:

to insist on the distinction between military and civilian targets: attacks instigated by movements of resistance against military targets are not in general war crimes, nor “terrorist” acts as too often the media represents. Similarly, soldiers made prisoners are not “hostages” but prisoners of war;
to recall that the principle war crimes are in the first place the acts of powerful States, with their attacks and bombings causing great loss of civilian life; to insist in this regard on the development of humanitarian law as set out in the 1977 Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions and to protest against the regression of this law, including in the Statute of the ICC;
to lead a complimentary reflection regarding the attacks instigated by movements of resistance (or those representing themselves as such) against civilians not directly participating in the hostilities, attacks commonly qualified as “terrorist acts”. These actions do not all fall into the same category: from suicide attacks on markets or places of cult gatherings, or against civilian populations in countries considered responsible for the war, to the launching of rockets in a discriminate manner or towards civilian zones, aimed primarily to diminish the military pressure of the occupying country.

If all these acts are in general condemnable by humanitarian law, and first most the most horrible, can certain of these acts nevertheless benefit from “attenuating circumstances” faced with actions of powerful States and the dissymmetry of military means?

The ADIF seeks to encourage the expression of all points of view, while at the same time reaffirming for its part the importance of humanitarian law and of its respect and considering that this is in the interest of all, including movements of resistance, even and perhaps above all when the cause defended merits sympathy.