Blog Contribution – Just Security

Date posted: 22 July 2024

Consortium Co-Investigator Katharine Fortin examines in a new blog article the civilian and political institutions of armed non-State actors. The piece is part of a symposium hosted by the Just Security and Armed Groups and International Law blogs. It builds on the book volume Armed Groups and International Law. In the Shadowland of Legality and Illegality, edited by Fortin together with Ezequiel Heffes (Edward Elgar, 2023).

Fortin observes that there is an:

“intense and urgent need for a much better legal understanding by politicians and lawyers in militaries and counter terrorism of the realities of civilian life in territory under armed group control. It calls for a much more careful use by lawyers and policy makers of the term “organized armed group,” “non-State party,” and “members” so that armed groups’ military wings and civilians wings are not conflated. At an academic level, it calls for more interdisciplinary research on the daily lived experiences of the 64 million people currently under the exclusive control of armed non-State actors exercising State-like control and government functions. The new Beyond Compliance Consortium which the author is a part of is an example of such an endeavor.”