From “Belligerent” to “Organised Armed Group”: Understanding the Legal Justification of the Metamorphosis of the Designation of Non-State Groups in a Common Article 3 Conflict

The Geneva Conventions were negotiated at the diplomatic conference held in Geneva in 1949, making 2024 its seventy-fifth anniversary. The intentions of states at that time concerning the identification of a non-state party to an armed conflict not of an international character was for a non-state group to be identified as belligerent; however, in contemporary conflict situations, a non-state party is identified as an organised armed group. This contribution examines the metamorphosis of these terminologies in relation to the identification of a non-state party to a conflict by exploring the travaux préparatoires of the Geneva Conventions. Furthermore, to justify the shift in the interpretation of a non-state party as belligerent to organised armed groups, this study analyses the legal basis of this change from an historical perspective by examining whether an evolving intention was envisaged by the plenipotentiaries during the negotiation of the Conventions. And, finally, this contribution compares the original intention of the drafters of the Conventions with the contemporary interpretation in the application of the Common Article 3 in relation to the identification of non-state groups.