Le Droit International Humanitaire À L'Épreuve Des Groupes Armés Non-Étatiques (International Humanitarian Law Facing Non-State Armed Groups)

This paper aims at defining what is an armed group for the purpose of international humanitarian law (IHL). For so doing, it first comes back to the legal developments surrounding the concept of armed group under IHL, most notably through an historical account of the different types of armed conflicts to which armed groups can be parties. The paper then turns to the definitional elements of armed groups under IHL as developed by the jurisprudence of international criminal tribunals. One main interrogation is then explored: is international humanitarian law able to reflect the multifaceted nature of contemporary armed groups?