The Geneva Conventions do not specifically define the term "civil war". They do, however, describe the criteria for acts qualifying as "armed conflict not of an international character", which includes civil wars. Among the conditions listed are four requirements:[7][8]
- The party in revolt must be in possession of a part of the national territory.
- The insurgent civil authority must exercise de facto authority over the population within the determinate portion of the national territory.
- The insurgents must have some amount of recognition as a belligerent.
- The legal Government is "obliged to have recourse to the regular military forces against insurgents organized as military.
7.^ Final Record of the Diplomatic Conference of Geneva of 1949, (Volume II-B, p. 121).
8.^ See also the International Committee of the Red Cross commentary on Third 1949 Geneva Convention, Article III, Section "A. Cases of armed conflict" for the ICRC's reading of the definition and a listing of proposed alternate wording.
Bookmarks