Improving Compliance with International Humanitarian Law Through the Establishment of an Individual Complaints Procedure

Abstract

This article discusses some of the legal issues that arise in the context of the possible establishment of an individual complaints procedure for violations of international humanitarian law, a proposal launched at the Hague Appeal for Peace in 1999. It examines such a proposal in the light of recent practice of human rights bodies, which suggests that the latter are not the most adequate means to improve supervision of compliance with international humanitarian law. The article argues that a separate body should be established and concentrates on the competence ratione materiae of such a body, the conceptualisation of the legal basis for individual complaints, non-state actors as respondents of complaints and applicable reparations for violations of international humanitarian law.