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direct participating in hostilities
What amounts to direct participating in hostilities by civilians? What are the risks they run if they do so? Discuss, with reference to the ICRC Interpretive Guidance on the Notion of Direct Participation in Hostilities.
Answer the following question:
What amounts to direct participating in hostilities by civilians? What are the risks they run if they do so? Discuss, with reference to the ICRC Interpretive Guidance on the Notion of Direct Participation in Hostilities.
Assessment criteria
Students should demonstrate the ability to:
• Assimilate the subject matter of the module.
• Apply theoretical notions to facts.
• Structure the work so that statements, arguments and conclusions flow coherently and logically.
• Use correct legal terminology.
• Make appropriate citations and references.
• Identify lacunæ and contradictions in judicial and non-judicial opinions.
In grading assessments, the quality of work will be determined by reference to the following:
• Extent to which facts have been assimilated.
• Breadth of knowledge of the relevant law.
• Degree of insight into the issues.
• Level of application of the law to the issues.
• Depth of analysis, description and discussion in promoting the arguments.
• Extent to which viable innovative solutions are proposed.
• Degree to which planning and coherence is evident in the structure of the response.
• Level to which complex solutions are offered and evaluated.
• Extent to which command of English is demonstrated in a legal context.
Important Notice Regarding Referencing:
Dear writer, in my previous papers I have lost many marks due to poor referencing hence it is important to get it right.
1. For primary sources, References need to be complete, it should and must include correct Page Number, Paragraph number, in addition to the year of publication the name of the author etc. if it’s a journal Article, in addition to all needed information it is important to add the page number of the article.
If specific rules are used, specially to the rules contained in Geneva Convention, Particularly the Protocol, here you have to refer to the specific rule, not just say that article 1 or 2 say that or this, you have to mention for instance article 51, paragraph 5 letter B that refers to the principle of proportionality. So if it is a specific paragraph of a long article you have to be specific just mentioning the Article will not be accepted.
2. For secondary sources, quotation marks need to be applied to all texts that are used from original text whether in the main text or footnotes
Page numbers are vital to be included whether you use Journal, Article, Book, etc. Websites used need to be referenced completely.
Dear writer in addition to what you are going to include, below are the instruction for the information that need to be included in the paper.
Instructions:
• You have to look at the situations of when does civilian lose the protection as civilian essentially from attack, in other words when a civilian can be attacked, and it is when civilian takes direct participation in hostilities according to additional protocol One, and therefore we are required to discuss what the wordings mean for instance what DIRECT means, what PARTICIPATION means and what HOSTILITIES MEAN. Answers to these questions need to be provided in light of the ICRC GUIDANCE. ICRC guidance can be used as starting point, but you also need to use commentaries on ICRC Guidance, books and Articles written on the notions of direct participation in hostilities.
For instance the ICRC Guidance states, you have direct participation in hostility when you have 3 requirements,
1. Threshold of Harm: The fact that the action causes certain threshold of harm. Explain what is it.
2. Direct Participation: The harm that is caused by direct participation. What does direct means?
3. Belligerent Nexus: And that there is a belligerent Nexus with the hostilities. What does it mean
We have to make sure that we discuss these issues but we have to be careful not just to summaries the ICRC documents, as it will not be sufficient.
• We should look at the ICRC commentary, for instance commentary on Article 50 of the Additional protocol1.
• We should look at what scholars write in Journal Articles about the ICRC Guidance 2009 or about Additional protocol one. Over all the paper needs to concentrate on what the notion of direct participation in hostilities mean, it is all about the notion of Direct Participation in Hostilities with particular reference to the 2009 ICRC Guidance. Nothing more nothing less. We do not need to talk about combatants, or civilians who do not take direct part in combat however it is advised strongly to provide examples here for instance whether someone who transport ammunition to the battlefield, will such action be considered direct participation in hostilities? Or what if civilian spies on behalf of belligerent, should such individual be considered directly participating in hostilities? For this I would like you to look at some case law such as that of (THE JUDGMENT OF THE ISRAEL SUPREME COURT, ON THE TARGETED KILLING (link provided below) it is very important that this case is looked at and used in this paper, because in this case they anticipate certain conclusions on the ICRC Guidance.
• And finally what are the risks civilians run if they do take direct participation in hostilities?
• All source used need to be of academic standards and verified.
Links for the case of Targeted Killing, and ICRC guidance, which need to be used.
• The Public Committee against Torture in Israel v The Government of Israel, Judgment, Israel’s Supreme Court (11 December 2005), available at <http://elyon1.court.gov.il/Files_ENG/02/690/007/a34/02007690.a34.htm>
Cassese, ‘On Some Merits of the Israeli Judgment on Targeted Killings’, 5 JICJ (2007), 339
• N. Melzer, Interpretative Guidance on the Notion of Direct Participation in Hostilities under International Humanitarian Law (2009), www.icrc.org/eng/assets/files/other/icrc-002-0990.pdf.