9 June 2022, 18:00-19:30
IHL Talks
Alexander Jawfox, Unsplash
Since its creation around a decade ago, the Wagner Group has become notorious for its brutality. Its members have allegedly committed international crimes, in particular war crimes, in countries such as Ukraine, Libya, the Central African Republic, and Mali, among others. Furthermore, the group has been accused of various forms of ruthless violence such as using booby-traps and landmines in civilian areas in Libya, committing inhumane treatment of civilians as well as rapes and robberies against civilians in the Central African Republic.
This IHL Talk aims at clarifying the relevant frameworks of responsibility for the crimes committed by the Wagner troops. Panelists will notably address the following questions:
The IHL Talks are a series of events, hosted by the Geneva Academy, on international humanitarian law and current humanitarian topics. Every two months, academic experts, practitioners, policymakers and journalists discuss burning humanitarian issues and their regulation under international law.
Watch or re-watch our IHL Talk on accountability for the Wagner Group and its members.
Panelists notably discussed:
- The status of Wagner Group members: PMSCs, #mercenaries, or de facto members of the Russian armed forces and the legal framework that governs this status.
- Whether the conduct of Wagner Group members be attributable to Russia
- The avenues for holding the members of the Wagner Group criminally responsible and whether the question of command responsibility of the Wagner Group leaders and Russian officials arises.
Geneva Academy
The Geneva Academy PhD Forum is a space that gathers PhD researchers and experts – in Geneva and beyond – who work in the scientific focus area of the Geneva Academy.
Geneva Academy
International lawyers, social scientists, security experts, and humanitarian practitioners discussed how research in social sciences could inform IHL experts and humanitarian practitioners to assess whether a certain degree of cooperation between organized armed groups – referred to as a ‘coalition’ – had relevance for armed conflict classification.
ICRC
As a yearly publication, it keeps decision-makers, practitioners and scholars up-to-date with the latest trends and challenges in IHL implementation in over 100 armed conflicts worldwide – both international and non-international.
UN Photo/Violaine Martin
The IHL-EP works to strengthen the capacity of human rights mechanisms to incorporate IHL into their work in an efficacious and comprehensive manner. By so doing, it aims to address the normative and practical challenges that human rights bodies encounter when dealing with cases in which IHL applies.
Geneva Academy ICRC