State Responsibility for Support of Armed Groups in the Commission of Mass Atrocities

Abstract

Since 1945, there has been a proliferation of armed groups in conflict theatres across the globe. Although these groups exist outside of the regular forces of States, they are in most instances supported and controlled by States. Despite this, the complicit support of States in the commission of international crimes by armed groups is not recognised under international law and the tests of control through which the conduct of individuals could be attributed to States are almost impossible to meet. This allows States to maintain compelling roles in international crimes committed by armed groups with impunity. Despite this, the role played by States in modern international conflict has received only intermittent attention in the literature. This thesis seeks to address this disparity by addressing the critical role of State support of armed groups in the commission of international crimes by challenging the existing tests of attribution of conduct to States under the present rules of international responsibility. Therefore this thesis asks whether there can be variation to the current tests for attribution of conduct of individuals who are members of non-State armed groups to States which provide support to them, by approaching the interpretation of “control” in a purposive, less literal manner. It argues this by analysing the limitations of the current law through selected case studies. It further examines alternative approaches in the fields of international human rights law and international criminal law, again through selected case studies with a view to determining whether they can assist in crafting more purposive approaches towards the determination of State control over armed groups. This will augment the current corpus of literature by suggesting improvements that can, hopefully, pass into the lex lata and stymie continued State impunity in this area.