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International Law and International Organizations
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Kudinov A.S. The International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission: the current regulation, problems and perspectives

Abstract: The paper presents a commentary on Article 90 of the Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts, 1977. The author made a detailed analysis of the legal regulation of the organization and functioning of the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission. Details covered the formation, composition, competence, grounds of competence, the procedure and some other aspects of the functioning of the Commission. The author gave special consideration to the opportunity to investigate the violations committed during non-international armed conflicts, as well as the right to provide good offices. During the course of this research the author used the following methods: dialectical, analytical, synthetic, functional, systematic, legalistic and comparative. To date, the Commission is inactive. A key reason is the contradiction between its legal characteristics and purpose of the operation. Conceived as a mechanism to ensure the implementation of international humanitarian law, the Commission, however, is a part of the system of settlement of disputes. Its functions are more appropriate to Grotian model of international obligations, rather than to Kantian one. It operates in the interests of individual conflicting states, rather than in the interest of the whole international community. The Commission is able to ensure the implementation of international humanitarian law insofar as the parties to the conflict take measures in relation to each other on the basis of its report. Other countries and international organizations remain outside this process. The author suggested some solutions of the problem.


Keywords:

Geneva Convention, International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission, Ensuring legal order, International investigation, International disputes resolution, International humanitarian law, Investigative commission, Serious violations, Kunduz airstrike, Good deeds


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