Expert Meeting: The Use of Force in Armed Conflicts: Interplay Between the Conduct of Hostilities and Law Enforcement Paradigms

The operational and legal environment just described has led the ICRC to conclude that there is a need to clarify the types of cases in which the use of force falls within the conduct of hostilities or, by contrast, within that of law enforcement. For this reason, and as part and parcel of the activities of the ICRC in order to reaffirm and clarify IHL and its interplay with other bodies of international law, the ICRC organised an expert meeting in January 2012 whose objective was to examine the issue by discussing five case studies that were developed to illustrate some of the concrete legal and practical issues that arise in the field. The case studies portray situations taking place in the context of non-international armed conflicts but the lessons drawn from these cases can to a large extent be applied in international armed conflicts as well. The meeting also tackled the issue by adopting a broad perspective. Issues arising not only at the moment of the execution of an operation (i.e. the actual use of force) but also before and after the use of force - notably questions of planning and investigation were addressed. This report has for objective to provide an account of the fascinating debates that took place during the meeting.