Actions taken:
Mindful that deprivation of liberty is an ordinary and expected occurrence in all situations of armed conflict, and international humanitarian law sometimes dictates that military necessity may be more proportionately and humanely served through States’ use of non-arbitrary detention than through the use of lethal force, deeply concerned that persons deprived of their liberty in relation to armed conflict are vulnerable to murder, forced disappearance, the taking of hostages, torture, cruel or inhumane treatment, rape and other forms of sexual violence, and disregard for their basic needs, the EU and its Member States will strongly support the drafting of an outcome document to enhance the legal protection of the detained persons in Non-international Armed Conflict.
The EU and its Member States supported an outcome document to enhance the legal protection of detained persons in Non-international Armed Conflict that would adequately ensure safe and dignified conditions of detention, protection for especially vulnerable groups of detainees and procedures for the internment and transfers of detainees from one authority to another.
On 6-7 April 2017, the ICRC convened the first formal meeting of States to implement Resolution 1 ‘Strengthening international humanitarian law protecting persons deprived of their liberty’, adopted at the 32nd International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent. EU Member States actively participated in consultations, with the goal of drafting concrete and implementable outcome documents aimed at strengthening IHL protection in this area and continuously supported the intergovernmental discussions led by the ICRC in the framework of Resolution 1.
No consensus was, however, reached on the modalities of how to reinforce the protection of detained persons in Non-international Armed Conflict and the project (drafting of an outcome document) is currently not being pursued.
After the termination of the process, some EU Member States continued to support the ICRC in its efforts to address the topic, including through training and other educational activities. In July 2018, several EU Member States participated in the ICRC-led ‘State Expert Meeting on Challenges and Practices for Ensuring Humane Conditions of Detention during Armed Conflict’, which enabled and fostered substantive exchanges on legal and humanitarian issues.
