The Swiss Network for International Studies (SNIS) bestowed its International Geneva Award 2011 upon Dr Annyssa Bellal, Gilles Giacca, and Dr Stuart Casey-Maslen, researchers at the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, for their paper “International law and armed non-state actors in Afghanistan” published in the International Review of the Red Cross.

The article looks at the application and implementation of international law by armed non-state actors in Afghanistan. In the paper the researchers investigate the application of both humanitarian law and international human rights law to these actors which include the Taliban, the Haqqani network, Hezb-e-Islami and others. In the first part of the article they analyse the relevance in the Afghanistan conflict of the Geneva Conventions’ Common Article 3, which lays out minimum rules for armed conflicts of a non-international character, and Additional Protocol II, which defines laws for the protection of civilians in conflicts that take place within the borders of one country. The authors also assess efforts to implement applicable law in Afghanistan and consider what more could be done to improve adherence by armed non-state actors, particularly the Taliban.

“Even though all the legal answers have yet to be elaborated, holding armed non-state actors directly accountable for violations of international human rights law is certainly the direction in which the international community is heading and rightly so”, the authors state.

Among the measures the paper recommends in order to provide better protection for civilians is that the Government of Afghanistan and foreign forces in the country publicly commit to respecting all provisions of the Geneva Conventions’ Common Article 3 and encourage the Taliban to do the same. In addition, it recommends that the country’s government, coalition forces and the Taliban negotiate agreements on the protection of civilians as well as ways to limit civilian casualties when improvised explosive devices are used and suicide attacks carried out.

In closing the authors call for greater acceptance of the principle that human rights law should apply to armed non-state actors.

The International Geneva Award was established by the Swiss Network of International Studies (SNIS) to encourage researchers to produce publications that are particularly relevant for International Organisations.

Annyssa Bellal, Gilles Giacca and Stuart Maslen are researchers at the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, jointly established by the Graduate Institute and the University of Geneva.

Annyssa Bellal holds a PhD from the Graduate Institute and is currently a Research Fellow at the Geneva Academy. She previously worked as a legal advisor for the Swiss Department of Foreign Affairs within the Directorate of Public international law, where she dealt with human rights and counter-terrorism issues.

Gilles Giacca holds a Masters Degree in International Relations from the Graduate Institute and is currently working toward his PhD here under the supervision of Professor Andrew Clapham, also co-Director of the Geneva Academy. Mr Giacca is a teaching assistant for the Swiss Chair of Human Rights at the Academy.

Stuart Maslen, Research Fellow at the Geneva Academy, is an international lawyer specialising in the regulation of conventional weaponry, especially landmines and cluster munitions. Stuart holds a PhD in International Humanitarian Law from the University of Tilburg in the Netherlands. He also serves as the Mine Action Editor of Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor for Norwegian People’s Aid.