ATTRIBUTING HUMAN RIGHTS OBLIGATIONS TO ORGANIZED ARMED GROUPS

This article addresses the issue of attributing human rights obligations to organized armed groups. The authors carried out a thorough analysis of international practice and scientific literature, and revealed the theory of de facto control over a certain territory, which most fully explains the existence of human rights obligations of non-state actors. This theory focuses on the actual circumstances of the situation in a particular state, which makes it more difficult to implement the possibility for an armed group to renounce the binding force of international human rights law, as well as also considers such groups as a vertical power in relation to the population, which preserves the hierarchy of international legal regulation. The de facto control theory can be used to determine the scope of international law applicable to an armed group, already having its legal personality, and to an armed group, whose legal personality has been established as a result of applying the de facto control theory. This theory establishes that an armed group is bound by customary international law, applicable law of international treaties, international treaties applicable in the territory of the control state, such as local agreements, treaties in the field of international environmental law and international human rights law.