Chapter 11 examines the role of institutions. Specifically, it explores how institutions can be undermined by rent-seeking activities that bias decision-making toward suboptimal alternatives and consume valuable resources. Furthermore, this erosion of institutions leads to a decline, or at best stagnation, in the standard of living of the society by diverting a significant portion of productive forces. The chapter presents two models of war in which the armed conflict is produced by resource inequality (the book also acknowledges other types of causes of war like ethnic, religious, etc.) and offers recommendations on how to prevent them. Specifically, a one-sided transfer of resources from wealthy to less developed countries may provide incentives for peace even in the absence of enforceable agreements.

Chapter 3 proposes an original conceptual framework built on gender and security studies and supported by existing international legal standards and norms to reframe the interpretation of the refugee definition and better reflect the nature of violence in armed conflicts. In doing so, it reasserts the Refugee Convention as the cornerstone of international protection. This chapter claims that the ongoing dynamics of violence in situations of armed conflict provide a more valuable lens to interpret the Refugee Convention definition where persons flee armed conflicts as it focuses on the nature of violence, including its continuum, features, application, direction, motivation and impact. A micro-level analysis of this type also enables the identification of gender dynamics that are essential in understanding violence in armed conflicts. The framework outlines the knowledge that should be incorporated into the process of interpreting the refugee definition to ensure effective protection of refugees fleeing armed conflicts. The chapter is broken down into the characteristics of contemporary armed conflicts and how these features relate to the refugee definition, including the temporality of armed conflicts, the rise of non-state actors, weak states, and the objectives, gendered strategies and tactics of fighting parties.

Chapter 2 reviews the international and EU legal frameworks that apply to the international protection of persons fleeing contemporary armed conflicts from a gender perspective. The chapter explores the relationship between international law and armed conflicts, then turns to the interaction between international refugee law, international humanitarian law and international criminal law. The chapter emphasises the role of international human rights law in recognising the context of armed conflicts for the protection of human rights from a gender perspective. It then examines whether the Refugee Convention definition applies to persons fleeing armed conflicts in accordance with the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT) , but also more broadly whether international refugee law is able to fulfil its purpose of international protection in light of the changing characteristics of contemporary armed conflicts. The central claim of this chapter is that interpreting the Refugee Convention definition to ensure the effective protection of persons fleeing contemporary armed conflicts requires the incorporation of existing knowledge found in conflict and gender literature. This interpretative obligation is then discussed in the context of EU Member States (MS) acting within the EU legal order.

The Introduction sets out how the number of forcibly displaced persons in the world is the highest ever recorded. Violence associated with armed conflict has become the main cause of forced displacement in the twenty-first century and most refugees are fleeing armed conflicts. Most asylum seekers in the European Union (EU) originate from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq. However, there are many misconceptions whether persons fleeing armed conflicts are refugees as defined by the Refugee Convention. This book is thus an enquiry into the continued relevance of the Refugee Convention and examines the extent to which asylum appellate authorities in the EU take into account the changing nature of contemporary armed conflicts. The book also explores how the Refugee Convention may be interpreted in a manner that better responds to the changed nature of contemporary armed conflicts from a gender perspective, thus reconceptualising the concept of the refugee. The Introduction sets out the conceptual notions adopted in the book, such as the importance of distinguishing between violence and armed conflicts, the research methodology and sampling of 320 asylum appeal decisions from Belgium, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK. Finally, it sets out the structure of the book.

This chapter demonstrates that drone programs – the combination of legal narratives, shifts in military strategy, and technological change – bring about an anywhere war. Combat drones have been deployed against non-state actors extraterritorially, including on the territory of non-belligerent states, because of the presence on those territories of members of terrorist groups. To allow this, drone programs have involved the creation of concepts such as “outside areas of active hostilities” or “outside hot conflict zones.” These non-legal concepts posit that jus in bello applies wherever the belligerent is, including on the territory of a state where the hostilities are not taking place. This practice, accompanied with supportive legal and political rationales, has sparked a heated debate among scholars on the geographical scope of armed conflicts under the jus in bello. Departing from the normative discussion for or against a geographical limitation of conflicts, the chapter shows that there is no such a thing as a legal geographical limitation of conflicts in the law and that its absence is exploited by drone programs, whose technological features eventually create the prospect of an anywhere war taking place wherever the enemy is.

Amid the emergence of modern warfare at the end of the nineteenth century, states agreed on a model to regulate armed conflicts centered on a body of internationally agreed norms known as international humanitarian law (IHL). While states have always been the sole law makers and are ultimately responsible for the implementation of the laws of war, the International Committee of the Red Cross placed itself at the very center of the new model, as the champion of IHL, filling the gaps in terms of sponsoring new rules, promoting the law, and monitoring its application in war zones. This unique model of governance was composed of states and independent humanitarian actors and combines features of a hierarchy and a network. While the model saved countless numbers of lives, it has been perpetually challenged, criticized, and violated. The model stood the test of time nonetheless and survived the conflicts of the twentieth century. It is still enduring today. This chapter analyses the reasons for the longevity of the model, looking at its evolution over time in terms of key moments, efficacy and legitimacy, changing composition, and growing complexity.

This chapter examines the contribution of the Special Court for Sierra Leone caselaw on the prosecution of child recruitment as a war crime under international law. The Sierra Leone conflict was widely known for its conscriptions of children as child soldiers, who under the influence of fear, drugs, and hallucinogens committed grave atrocities across Sierra Leone. Although the crime of child recruitment and conscription was recognized in 1998 when the Rome Statute for the International Criminal Court was adopted, the Special Court was the first court to successfully charge and prosecute this particular war crime. In analyzing this novel prosecution, this chapter first addresses the creation and recognition of the war crime of child recruitment within the Rome Statute. Second, it examines the reasoning of the Appeals Chamber in holding that child recruitment is a crime recognized under customary international law. Third, it assesses the impact of the Special Court’s work on prosecuting child recruitment in developing the actus reus and mens rea of the crime. Finally, this chapter examines the impact of the Special Court on the International Criminal Court’s prosecutions of child recruitment in the recent cases of Lubanga and Ongwen.