BEYOND COMPLIANCE CONSORTIUM:
BUILDING EVIDENCE ON PROMOTING RESTRAINT BY ARMED ACTORS

BCC Introduction

The Beyond Compliance Consortium is a co-productive, socio-legal research partnership that traverses the fields of international law, conflict studies, humanitarian protection work and human rights policy, and brings together these communities of scholarship and practice with people with lived experience of conflict.

Funded with UK International Development from the UK government, we are undertaking a three-year theoretical, empirical, and operational research programme “Building Evidence on Promoting Restraint by Armed Actors.”

Our research centres local communities’ everyday lived experiences of armed conflict and aims to contribute to the effective prevention and reduction of humanitarian need and civilian harm, and the facilitation of full(er) protection in war.

Ioana Cismas Quote

“Our research is grounded in and responds to the reality of war. Working co-productively with humanitarian organisations and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, we aim to generate new ways of thinking that translate into practical, effective tools that policy-makers, operational actors, and civilian communities themselves can employ in their humanitarian efforts.”

Ioana Cismas, Principal Investigator

Professor, York Law School and Centre for Applied Human Rights, University of York

Katharine Fortin Quote

“There is still much to be learnt on how international humanitarian law and other legal regimes applicable in armed conflict capture the lived experiences of civilians in armed conflict, and the potential of different actors, including civilian communities to contribute to a compliance ecosystem which is defined not only by restraint but also protection.”

Katharine Fortin, Co-Investigator

Associate Professor, School of Law, Utrecht University

Rebecca Sutton Quote

“The urgent challenges that communities caught up in armed conflict are facing right now cannot be met by any single actor, nor by one body of law. This academic-practitioner collaboration will focus on the everyday lived experience of armed conflict, with the shared ambition of better understanding – and addressing – the drivers of humanitarian need and civilian harm in war.”

Rebecca Sutton, Co-Investigator

Senior Lecturer, School of Law, University of Glasgow

Ezequiel Heffes Quote

“By delving into the nuances of compliance and restraint in armed conflict, the programme will provide invaluable insights to everyone trying to understand how States and non-State armed groups operate. Understanding these dynamics is paramount, as it can serve to mitigate the devastating impact conflicts have on civilian populations around the globe.”

Ezequiel Heffes, Co-Investigator

Humanitarian Affairs Expert

Resources & Publications

Beyond Compliance Symposium

How to prevent harm and need in armed conflict, our online blog symposium

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Beyond Compliance: In Conversation

Armed groups & international law podcast, with leading experts, policy makers and academics

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Beyond Compliance Blog Symposium Booklet

A selection of Beyond Compliance Symposium blog articles reflecting our core research conceptualisation

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Latest News

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Recording available – Beyond Compliance in a Chaotic World: Achieving Full(er) Protection in Armed Conflict

21 Oct 2025
Events

Nigeria. Borno State, Biu General Hospital, stabilization centre supported by the ICRC. While the COVID-19 pandemic has hogged all the attention, the rise in malnourished children has the medical staff of Biu General Hospital worried that more children may die if they don't receive treatment.

How Conflict and Climate Change Deepen Child Malnutrition in Sub-Saharan Africa

16 Oct 2025
Beyond Compliance Blog Symposium

Lattice, a software platform of the American defence technology company Anduril Industries, at a 2020 field test of the Advanced Battle Management System

Before compliance – ex-ante decision making in the design of military AI capabilities and the need to unravel the private technology sector’s role

23 Sep 2025
Beyond Compliance Blog Symposium

Guatemala, Chimaltenango, San Juan Comalapa. For the Day of the Dead, Rosa, 42, and her mother Feliciana, 79, pray in front of the altar the family has arranged to honor the memory of Encarnación Apen Curruchic, their brother, who went missing when he was 18.

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BEYOND COMPLIANCE CONSORTIUM:
BUILDING EVIDENCE ON PROMOTING RESTRAINT BY ARMED ACTORS