Non-International Armed Conflict (NIAC)

Primary reference(s)

ICRC, 2008. How is the term ‘Armed Conflict’ defined in International Humanitarian Law? Opinion Paper. International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Accessed 15 January 2020.

Additional scientific description

Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions provides for “the case of armed conflict not of an international character,” and the definition of Non-International Armed Conflict (NIAC) offered herein reflects the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)’s understanding based on practice and international case-law (ICRC, 2016). The category of NIAC includes:

• Armed conflicts between a State Party and one or more organised non-State Parties (ICRC, 2016).
• Armed conflicts which do not include a State Party but are between two or more organised non-State Parties (UNGA, 1998).

Confrontations must occur between organised Parties possessing organised armed forces (ICRC, 2016). While NIAC occurs predominantly within a State, NIAC may feature extraterritorial aspects (ICRC, 2016) and/or become internationalised with the involvement of foreign States in support of one or more Parties (ICRC, 2016).

Armed violence must meet a minimum threshold of intensity that distinguishes it from situations not considered NIAC, including the following:

• “Internal disturbances and tensions, such as riots, isolated and sporadic acts of violence and other acts of a similar nature” (UN, no date; Article 1 of Additional Protocol II).
• “Banditry, unorganized and short-lived insurrections, or terrorist activities” (ICRC, 2016).

The intensity of violence is assessed on a case-by-case basis based on cumulative evidence relating to objective criteria, and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) developed a non-exhaustive set of ‘indicative factors’ that can be used as examples to determine ‘the seriousness of attacks’ (ICTY, 2008).

The termination of NIAC is also based on objective criteria and not the declaration of a ceasefire, armistice, or peace agreement. International humanitarian law “extends beyond the cessation of hostilities until…a peaceful settlement is achieved” (ICTY, 1995: para. 70). The termination of NIAC may be initiated when one of the Parties is summarily defeated and ceases to exist or otherwise dissolves, or when there is a lasting absence of armed confrontations between the original Parties.

Metrics and numeric limits

The identification and classification of NIAC is not conducted by a central authority, and the minimum threshold of intensity and duration for an armed confrontation to be considered a situation of NIAC is determined on a case-by-case basis (ICRC, 2016).

There are numerous academic conflict datasets available that provide their own operational thresholds for the minimum number of annual fatalities for NIAC events and trends to be included. For example, two of the most influential academic conflict datasets, the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (Uppsala Universitet, no date) and the Correlates of War (The Correlates of War Project, no date) apply annual conflict-related fatality thresholds of 25 and 1000, respectively.

Examples of drivers, outcomes and risk management

Armed conflict carries immediate and severe impacts on human lives, health, and dignity: “Increasing numbers of civilians have been killed, wounded, treated without dignity, arbitrarily detained and/or separated from their families. They have been targeted on purpose, forced to leave their homes, and deprived of their basic rights as human beings, such as the right to supplies essential to their survival” (ICRC, 1999). In situations of armed conflict, international humanitarian law aims to protect people, the environment, livelihoods, infrastructure, education systems, health systems, and cultural objects and property, to name a few (ICRC, 1999).