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| assistants = | | assistants = | ||
| enregistrement = | | enregistrement = | ||
| cours = [[ | | cours = [[Droit international humanitaire]] | ||
| lectures = | | lectures = | ||
*[[Introduction | *[[Introduction au cours de droit international humanitaire]] | ||
*[[ | *[[Les sources du droit des conflits armés]] | ||
*[[ | *[[L’applicabilité du droit des conflits armés]] | ||
*[[ | *[[Les règles matérielles du droit des conflits armés]] | ||
*[[ | *[[Les règles du droit des conflits armés non-internationaux]] | ||
}} | }} | ||
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#A particularly historical category, the wars of national liberation. The national liberation war, at least according to Additional Protocol I, Article 1§4, is an international armed conflict and not a non-international armed conflict. | #A particularly historical category, the wars of national liberation. The national liberation war, at least according to Additional Protocol I, Article 1§4, is an international armed conflict and not a non-international armed conflict. | ||
These are the five situations | These are the five situations and we will only comment on four of them: peace, armed conflict as de facto hostility, declared war and war situation, occupied territory without armed resistance. These are four alternative gateways to IHL, in the application of certain IHL rules, but care must be taken that each of these gateways does not lead to the application of the same rules in the law of international armed conflict. The last three situations mentioned, war, armed conflict and occupied territory without resistance, give rise in principle to the application of all the rules of the law of armed conflict except in the case of occupied territory, it is above all the rules on the occupation of the territory that apply by force of circumstance because that is what it is all about, there is no longer hostility, there is an occupied territory, there is no fighting because there has been no resistance, so it is in reality only the right of occupation that will apply. If there were ever to be hostility, acts of hostility, struggles, attacks, defensive operations, which is compatible with occupied territories, in occupied territories there may be skirmishes, in which case other IHL rules would also be applied. On the other hand, in the peace situation, the first threshold mentioned, there are only a few, but not very many, rules of the law of armed conflict that apply. The others are dormant since the others are intended for situations where there is a situation of belligerency and in times of peace, by definition, there is no such thing as a situation of belligerency. | ||
=== The peace situation === | === The peace situation === | ||
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As long as there is this declaration of war, from the moment of the declaration of war, IHL applies by virtue of what is provided for in Article 2 § 1 and also in customary law. It does not matter whether the declaration of war is a lawful or unlawful declaration in jus ad bellum. The ad bellum juice remains separated from the juice in bello. Therefore, whether the rule is declared unlawfully, declaration of war as aggression or lawful declaration of war, declaration of war as self-defence, has no impact, it will each time be a declaration of war. From the point of view of IHL, this is still sufficient. | As long as there is this declaration of war, from the moment of the declaration of war, IHL applies by virtue of what is provided for in Article 2 § 1 and also in customary law. It does not matter whether the declaration of war is a lawful or unlawful declaration in jus ad bellum. The ad bellum juice remains separated from the juice in bello. Therefore, whether the rule is declared unlawfully, declaration of war as aggression or lawful declaration of war, declaration of war as self-defence, has no impact, it will each time be a declaration of war. From the point of view of IHL, this is still sufficient. | ||
The declaration of war provides us with a broader applicability of the law of armed conflict for the time between the declaration and the outbreak of hostilities, if any. If we had only armed conflict and not declared war as a category of applicability, we would have situations where war had already been declared, but hostilities had not already begun | The declaration of war provides us with a broader applicability of the law of armed conflict for the time between the declaration and the outbreak of hostilities, if any. If we had only armed conflict and not declared war as a category of applicability, we would have situations where war had already been declared, but hostilities had not already begun and during that period IHL would not apply, there would be a gap and this gap is filled by the alternative gateway of the declaration of war. | ||
Sometimes war is declared, but there is never any de facto hostility. The most famous situations are the declarations of war by a whole series of Central and Latin American states to the Axis powers and in particular to Germany in the Second World War. Declaration of war which resulted in a state of war between Germany and these states respectively as, for example, Guatemala among others, but there was no hostility between the two, Germany was already relatively desperate | Sometimes war is declared, but there is never any de facto hostility. The most famous situations are the declarations of war by a whole series of Central and Latin American states to the Axis powers and in particular to Germany in the Second World War. Declaration of war which resulted in a state of war between Germany and these states respectively as, for example, Guatemala among others, but there was no hostility between the two, Germany was already relatively desperate and in any case the geographical distance between the two continents was such that there was no reason to consider that it could have fighting. | ||
Why these states have declared war on Germany if not to do so; there are several reasons for this, one of which is quite predominant over others. Some states declared war on Germany because it allowed them to seize certain enemy properties. It was possible at the time to confiscate enemy property when war was declared, there were some fairly wealthy Germans there, but that was a rather secondary reason. The main reason is that, except for Denmark, which was in a situation of occupation, it was a condition for being invited to the United Nations San Francisco conference to have declared war on Germany or the other Axis powers until a certain date. You had to have declared war on Germany, so some states did it at the very last moment to be inevitable in San Francisco. | Why these states have declared war on Germany if not to do so; there are several reasons for this, one of which is quite predominant over others. Some states declared war on Germany because it allowed them to seize certain enemy properties. It was possible at the time to confiscate enemy property when war was declared, there were some fairly wealthy Germans there, but that was a rather secondary reason. The main reason is that, except for Denmark, which was in a situation of occupation, it was a condition for being invited to the United Nations San Francisco conference to have declared war on Germany or the other Axis powers until a certain date. You had to have declared war on Germany, so some states did it at the very last moment to be inevitable in San Francisco. | ||
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This legal uncertainty was acceptable to the States. It is not the lawyers who want it, it is the States who cherish it. The reason is quite simple: it gives a considerable margin for argument. There will therefore very often be a situation in which the local government denies that it is in the presence of a non-international armed conflict, says that there is some unrest, some riots, a small insurrection, some noisy assholes, and that everything is under control and that we have to move because there is nothing particular to see, but in any case no non-international armed conflict. Other States, especially if they sympathize with the cause of the rebels, will consider much more quickly that there is a non-international armed conflict and the ICRC will probably fall between the two, but each will probably have its own qualification and therefore, it will often be impossible to say with certainty from when the law of non-international armed conflict applies. If we want to overcome this unfortunate legal obstacle, there is nothing left but to go through, as is very often the case, special agreements by putting the question of principle in brackets. It is thus perfectly possible to negotiate with a government that is reluctant to recognize a situation of armed conflict, but by telling it that this is not a non-international armed conflict, what interests IARC is that the content of Article 3 be respected, that it is "applied because the government itself, the rebels who seek international respectability, will not say that they wish to harm people. Normally, in the political struggle, no one claims to want to infringe Article 3. A rebel group that wants to become a government tomorrow knows that international respectability is important. At that time, there will be a special agreement to apply the content of Article 3 by putting the question of the qualification of the conflict in brackets. This is the pragmatic side with which IHL is very often dealt with, but it is unfortunate that from a legal point of view we do not have clearer regulations. | This legal uncertainty was acceptable to the States. It is not the lawyers who want it, it is the States who cherish it. The reason is quite simple: it gives a considerable margin for argument. There will therefore very often be a situation in which the local government denies that it is in the presence of a non-international armed conflict, says that there is some unrest, some riots, a small insurrection, some noisy assholes, and that everything is under control and that we have to move because there is nothing particular to see, but in any case no non-international armed conflict. Other States, especially if they sympathize with the cause of the rebels, will consider much more quickly that there is a non-international armed conflict and the ICRC will probably fall between the two, but each will probably have its own qualification and therefore, it will often be impossible to say with certainty from when the law of non-international armed conflict applies. If we want to overcome this unfortunate legal obstacle, there is nothing left but to go through, as is very often the case, special agreements by putting the question of principle in brackets. It is thus perfectly possible to negotiate with a government that is reluctant to recognize a situation of armed conflict, but by telling it that this is not a non-international armed conflict, what interests IARC is that the content of Article 3 be respected, that it is "applied because the government itself, the rebels who seek international respectability, will not say that they wish to harm people. Normally, in the political struggle, no one claims to want to infringe Article 3. A rebel group that wants to become a government tomorrow knows that international respectability is important. At that time, there will be a special agreement to apply the content of Article 3 by putting the question of the qualification of the conflict in brackets. This is the pragmatic side with which IHL is very often dealt with, but it is unfortunate that from a legal point of view we do not have clearer regulations. | ||
When we have these two criteria, organization and intensity, we have a non-international armed conflict and we can apply common Article 3. These two criteria constitute the line. Internal unrest and tensions are not specifically defined in the law of armed conflict because it does not concern us directly and we do not need to define them because by defining one of the branches, | When we have these two criteria, organization and intensity, we have a non-international armed conflict and we can apply common Article 3. These two criteria constitute the line. Internal unrest and tensions are not specifically defined in the law of armed conflict because it does not concern us directly and we do not need to define them because by defining one of the branches, CANI according to Article 3 according to the two criteria, we can say that everything that is not CANI, Article 3, and which is not international conflict either, is automatically TTI. It is therefore sufficient to define one of the branches by letting all the other situations in the residual domain fall. Purists make a distinction between unrest on the one hand, internal tensions, riots on the other hand, structural political violence on the other hand, such as, for example, imprisoning many people, we can read in the commentary on Additional Protocol II to Article 1§2 to find out more. | ||
So that is the applicability of the minimum threshold of the law of non-international armed conflict. In other words, by "minimum threshold" we mean that if we are no longer in internal tensions or unrest and we move into a non-international conflict according to the two criteria we are automatically in common Article 3, we apply it according to the two criteria we have just seen. | So that is the applicability of the minimum threshold of the law of non-international armed conflict. In other words, by "minimum threshold" we mean that if we are no longer in internal tensions or unrest and we move into a non-international conflict according to the two criteria we are automatically in common Article 3, we apply it according to the two criteria we have just seen. | ||
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== The theatre of war
== | == The theatre of war
== | ||
The principle of effectiveness is where there are situations covered by the law of armed conflict and where it applies. What this means in practice is as follows: first of all, IHL applies throughout the territory of the belligerents, several when there is an international conflict, possibly only one when there is a non-international armed conflict. It should be noted that the law of armed conflict applies to all the territories of the warring parties | The principle of effectiveness is where there are situations covered by the law of armed conflict and where it applies. What this means in practice is as follows: first of all, IHL applies throughout the territory of the belligerents, several when there is an international conflict, possibly only one when there is a non-international armed conflict. It should be noted that the law of armed conflict applies to all the territories of the warring parties even where there is no combat. The reason for this is that, if an international armed conflict is taken, there are enemy civilians to protect wherever they are on the territory, the applicability of IHL should not be confused with the sole applicability of Hague law, means and methods of warfare, the conduct of hostilities, where it is clear that these rules will be applied where there are hostilities and not in those parts of the territory where there are no hostilities; but IHL is broader. We also know that in different parts of the territory, there may be different types of international armed conflict, non-international armed conflict, but this is nothing new. Nevertheless, it is on all the territories of the belligerents that IHL applies. Secondly, it applies wherever there are in fact battles or situations involving it, for example on the sea, namely the high seas. The high seas are not under the sovereignty of a State, but acts of belligerence can be carried out there, being covered by the freedom of the high seas, so it is possible to attack warships of the opposing State and to exercise control over ships flying various flags, particularly with regard to the control of smuggling. It must be said that these rules have much less importance today, namely smuggling, than in the 19th century when there was an extremely rich practice and literature - which Professor Kolb finds fascinating, namely smuggling and war smuggling. | ||
There is also the applicability of the law of armed conflict in areas where there is no combat, but simply situations giving rise to the applicability of IHL such as occupation. With the occupation of a territory, there is no longer hostility in the occupation phase or very little hostility, but there is the situation of war occupation recognized by IHL as giving rise to the applicability of some of these rules, in this case those on occupation of the territory. | There is also the applicability of the law of armed conflict in areas where there is no combat, but simply situations giving rise to the applicability of IHL such as occupation. With the occupation of a territory, there is no longer hostility in the occupation phase or very little hostility, but there is the situation of war occupation recognized by IHL as giving rise to the applicability of some of these rules, in this case those on occupation of the territory. | ||
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=== The issue of the Geneva Conventions === | === The issue of the Geneva Conventions === | ||
The second threshold is that of Geneva law, i.e. | The second threshold is that of Geneva law, i.e. in particular the Geneva Conventions, the protocols insofar as the protocols deal with Geneva law and not the conduct of hostilities, the end of detentions and internments. This is the purpose of articles 5, 5, 5, 5, 6 of the Geneva Conventions I to IV. It is easily understandable that as long as there are still detainees, such as prisoners of war, they must be covered by the Geneva III Convention in the case of prisoners of war. As long as there are civilians who have not been released, Convention IV must apply to their profits. It would still be doubtful if we could say that Geneva law stops at the end of military operations, that is, with the definitive armistice, and from that moment on, prisoners of war no longer enjoy protection under Convention III, because it is obvious that they will still be detained for a certain period of time. | ||
The general end of military operations is an act, the armistice, but then all repatriations must be organised, it takes a certain amount of time; it would still be strange if the conventions did not apply and prisoners of war were no longer protected during this period. The same applies to all other protected persons. This is why these conventions remain applicable as long as there is a prisoner of war who has not been released, a single wounded and sick person who is still in the control of the opposing party, a single civilian who has not yet been released, such as a civilian detained in a camp as in Article 79 et seq. of Convention IV. This can take years. In the Iran-Iraq war, it was in the early 2000s that the last prisoners of war were released, it seems, at least the last ones. Professor Kolb does not know if we can talk about liberating, speaking rather about the resituated coffins, could we say. This means that an armed conflict can last for a very long time. The law of Geneva may still be applicable for 20 or 30 years because of the 1967 conflict if there are still people in detention or people whose fate is unknown. | The general end of military operations is an act, the armistice, but then all repatriations must be organised, it takes a certain amount of time; it would still be strange if the conventions did not apply and prisoners of war were no longer protected during this period. The same applies to all other protected persons. This is why these conventions remain applicable as long as there is a prisoner of war who has not been released, a single wounded and sick person who is still in the control of the opposing party, a single civilian who has not yet been released, such as a civilian detained in a camp as in Article 79 et seq. of Convention IV. This can take years. In the Iran-Iraq war, it was in the early 2000s that the last prisoners of war were released, it seems, at least the last ones. Professor Kolb does not know if we can talk about liberating, speaking rather about the resituated coffins, could we say. This means that an armed conflict can last for a very long time. The law of Geneva may still be applicable for 20 or 30 years because of the 1967 conflict if there are still people in detention or people whose fate is unknown. | ||
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The Geneva Conventions deal mainly with protected persons and do not specifically contain rules on property, sometimes yes, but indirectly by referring to property belonging to protected persons. However, it is also clear that as long as property to be returned to its owner remains confiscated by the opposing power and such property has not been returned, Geneva law also remains applicable. The Eritrea-Ethiopia Commission reminded us of this. So, if cars are requisitioned and not yet returned to their owners, if personal objects of prisoners of war are removed, particularly objects that may be dangerous in a prisoner of war camp, personal weapons for example, but also too large sums of money or too large values that are confiscated when a prisoner of war enters the prison camp. It is to be returned at the time of release. Until this has been done, there are also the relevant provisions that continue to apply until such restitution has taken place. That is the usual threshold of the Geneva Conventions, which is staggered over time according to the releases of the persons concerned. | The Geneva Conventions deal mainly with protected persons and do not specifically contain rules on property, sometimes yes, but indirectly by referring to property belonging to protected persons. However, it is also clear that as long as property to be returned to its owner remains confiscated by the opposing power and such property has not been returned, Geneva law also remains applicable. The Eritrea-Ethiopia Commission reminded us of this. So, if cars are requisitioned and not yet returned to their owners, if personal objects of prisoners of war are removed, particularly objects that may be dangerous in a prisoner of war camp, personal weapons for example, but also too large sums of money or too large values that are confiscated when a prisoner of war enters the prison camp. It is to be returned at the time of release. Until this has been done, there are also the relevant provisions that continue to apply until such restitution has taken place. That is the usual threshold of the Geneva Conventions, which is staggered over time according to the releases of the persons concerned. | ||
=== | === L’occupation de guerre === | ||
En troisième lieu vient l’occupation de guerre. Il y a deux difficultés majeures dans la détermination de la fin du droit de l’occupation de guerre. La première a trait à la disparation du fait du fait de l’occupation en lui-même. Quand est-ce qu’une occupation se termine en tant que fait sur le terrain ? Il est facile de dire quand une personne est relâchée, c’est-à-dire quand elle n’est plus internée. Il n’est pas évident de dire quand un territoire n’est plus occupé. Mieux, il est évident de le dire dans certains cas, mais pas dans d’autres. Une deuxième difficulté nous vient de ce malencontreux article 6§3 de la Convention de Genève IV. | |||
==== | ==== Déterminer quand le fait de l’occupation arrive à son terme ==== | ||
La première série de problèmes est de déterminer quand le fait de l’occupation arrive à son terme. Le cas classique est le seul cas simple est que l’armée ayant envahie le territoire est s’y étant installée se retire. À ce moment-là, l’occupation cesse par évacuation du territoire occupé. Cela correspond à peu près au cas de figure de la fin des internements et des détentions pour ce qui concerne les personnes. Mais maintenant viennent les cas plus compliqués. | |||
On sait que l’occupation de guerre suppose une présence hostile. Quand est-il donc si une puissance occupante reste sur le territoire occupé, mais qu’elle argumente que désormais, elle n’y est pas en tant que puissance hostile, mais sur invitation du nouveau gouvernement du territoire occupé qui souhaite que l’ancien occupant reste sur son territoire. Si le consentement à rester sur le territoire octroyé par le gouvernement local à l’État occupant devait être pris juridiquement au sérieux, il en résulterait que l’occupation serrait terminée puisque l’occupation suppose une relation d’hostilité, et qu’au contraire, lorsque le gouvernement local habilité et invite une puissance étrangère à venir militairement sur le territoire, ce territoire n’est pas occupé, autrement le Mali devrait être un territoire occupé par la France depuis 2014, si ce n’est avant, mais ce qui n’est évidemment pas le cas. | |||
La grande difficulté en la matière vient évidemment du point de déterminer quand est-ce que le gouvernement local peut librement donner son consentement à ce que l’occupant reste. Il est légitime de penser que ce gouvernement local qui ne peut en définitive jouir de sa place que suite à la bonne volonté de l’occupant soit trop dépendant de ce dernier pour exprimer librement une volonté. Dès lors, il y a dans l’histoire, régulièrement, des problèmes significatifs liés à la fin de l’occupation avec des argumentations divergentes. Un cas classique en est l’Irak, et encore aujourd’hui, les juristes ne savent exactement à quel moment l’occupation s’est terminée ; il y a bien une version officielle qui est le 27 Juin 2004 avec le départ de l’administration Bremer. Mais, le premier gouvernement d’Afghanistan avec la phase d’occupation étant tout sauf véritablement indépendant des Américains étant composé d’anciens agents de la CIA en grande partie et par conséquent, on peut franchement douter de son indépendance. Toujours est-il qu’en suite, il y a eu des élections libres et il y a eu un gouvernement afghan nouveau et qu’à partir de ce moment-là en tout cas, l’invitation pouvait légitimement être donnée. Peut-être avons-nous lu dans la presse que désormais, les Américains souhaitent s’en aller relativement vite d’Afghanistan et que c’est le gouvernement afghan qui les freine comme il peut. En mars 2015, le Premier ministre afghan était aux États-Unis afin de demander à ce que les États-Unis restent. Il faut également rappeler que l’Union soviétique argumentait dans les années 1950 que le Japon continuait à être occupé par les Américains, sauf qu’évidemment les Japonais souhaitent librement que les Américains restent parce qu’ils se sentaient de plus en plus encerclés par des pays communistes. En termes brefs, il y a à chaque fois des discussions sur la capacité juridique du gouvernement local à inviter les forces étrangères parce qu’on mettra en doute son indépendance réelle et donc la liberté de formuler cette invitation. Cela rend difficile la détermination du moment ou cesse l’occupation. | |||
Deux autres cas de figure sont à signaler, n’étant pas du même acabit, mais tout de même. Il y a tout d’abord, la question jusqu’à présent encore assez théorique, de savoir si le Conseil de sécurité pourrait mettre fin à une occupation en déclarant tout simplement qu’elle est terminée. Il est vrai qu’on n’est pas passé trop loin de ce cas de figure dans la situation irakienne comme mentionnée en 2004 puisque la résolution 1546 du Conseil de sécurité prévoyait que cette occupation cesserait le 30 Juin 2004 qui était la date prévue où l’administration américaine Bremer devait se retirer et le nouveau gouvernement afghan prendre les rênes du pouvoir. Ensuite, le départ effectif a été le 27 Juin. | |||
Est-ce que le Conseil de sécurité pourrait dans une résolution contraignante en vertu du Chapitre VII de la Charte des Nations Unies déclarer qu’une certaine situation n’est plus une occupation de guerre et qu’elle cesse à telle date ou qu’elle n’a jamais était une occupation de guerre, et si jamais le Conseil de sécurité le faisait, est-ce que cette décision aurait priorité par rapport au DIH, en tout cas conventionnel, à cause de l’effet conjoint de l’effet des articles 25 et 103 de la charte et par rapport au droit coutumier du droit des conflits armés en vertu du principe de la lex speciali ? | |||
La question reste posée et elle peut donner lieu à des débats très intéressants sur des limites du pouvoir du Conseil de sécurité : est-ce que le Conseil de sécurité est tenu de respecter le DIH, est-ce que le DIH forme une limite à ses pouvoirs qu’il ne serait outrepassé ; c’est un débat de juristes très intéressant. Toujours est-il que la question est compliquée si elle devait se présenter. Dans la résolution 1546, cela était dans le préambule et cela était comme un simple constat de fait, mais c’était là la simple description d’un fait anticipé. Le Conseil de sécurité n’a pas pris position sur cette question dans un paragraphe opérationnel. C’était un considérant du préambule. Si cela avait été inséré dans le corps de la résolution, nous aurions sans doute eu plus de discussions. | |||
Signalons encore des situations telles que celles de Gaza. Les territoires occupés en Palestine sont particulièrement compliqués sur tous les points et en voici un très bel exemple. Gaza cesse d’être occupée depuis le retrait de l’armée israélienne et cela ne fait pas de doute. Si on n’occupe pas avec une présence physique un territoire alors on n’est pas occupant au sens classique du terme parce que toute une série d’obligation du droit de l’occupation ne peuvent pas être appliquée, elle suppose la présence physique sur le territoire. Quand on doit veiller à la vie civile, à l’hygiène, protéger les musées, on ne peut pas faire tout cela du dehors. Il n’en demeure pas moins que c’était anciennement un territoire occupé et qu’Israël a gardé à peu près un contrôle complet sur toutes les frontières de Gaza, il y a quelques corridors vers l’Égypte. | |||
Dès lors, Gaza est complètement contrôlé vers l’extérieur par Israël sur la frontière commune et en mer par des zones d’exclusion, et on peut se poser la question de savoir si le droit de l’occupation ne devrait pas continuer à s’appliquer au moins sur certains points. Non pas toutes les dispositions évidemment, mais au moins par exemple les dispositions qui régissent la responsabilité de la puissance occupante pour l’approvisionnement du territoire occupé, car Israël maitrise tout de même très largement l’approvisionnement, ouvrir ou fermer la frontière. Faudrait-il donc continuer à appliquer au moins ces dispositions-là, l’occupation se continuerait-elle partiellement et fonctionnellement par rapport à certaines dispositions et pas à d’autres à cause du contrôle effectif des frontières ; la question a agité aussi la doctrine et des esprits, et comme nous pouvons l’imaginer, des réponses ne sont pas uniformes. | |||
==== L’article 6 § 3 de la Convention de Genève IV ==== | |||
La deuxième serait de difficulté vient du malencontreux article 6§3 de la Convention de Genève IV. Cette disposition a été insérée en 1949 pour des raisons tout à fait adventis, à savoir à cause de l’occupation de l’Allemagne notamment et de toutes ses spécificités. Il y était prévu et il est toujours prévu dans cette disposition que le droit de l’occupation doit s’appliquer intégralement pendant une année après la fin générale des opérations militaires et que suite à l’écoulement de ce délai, seulement certaines dispositions de la convention continueraient à s’appliquer ; ce qui signifie à contrario que toutes les autres cessent de s’appliquer une année après la fin générale des opérations militaires si, bien entendu, le territoire est encore occupé. | |||
C’est une branchette de dispositions qui doit s’appliquer si un territoire est occupé même au-delà de la limite temporelle d’une année après la fin des opérations militaires, les autres dispositions ne s’appliquent plus. | |||
Le but de cette limitation était d’assurer aux puissances qui occupaient l’Allemagne une certaine liberté dans la gestion de cette situation très particulière où il s’agissait de reconstruire l’État. On a donc réservé notamment les grandes dispositions humanitaires. C’est-à-dire qu’on a plus ou moins rappelé que la puissance occupation même après une année suite à la fin des opérations militaires ne devrait pas faire de « saloperies » dans le territoire occupé précise le professeur Kolb, et donc on a inséré ces dispositions qui sont censées contenir les protections humanitaires les plus importantes. En revanche, du point de vue administratif, on voulait laisser plus de liberté à la puissance occupante. | |||
Il faut ajouter que cette disposition singulière vient aussi de cette conception ancienne qui prévalait totalement en 1949, à savoir que l’occupation de guerre est une incidente de la guerre et qu’elle est appelée de cesser très rapidement après la fin des opérations militaires. En d’autres termes et plus simplement, on ne pensait pas qu’il y aurait des occupations prolongées. Il a fallu l’expérience des territoires occupés de Palestine pour qu’on se ravise et dans le protocole additionnel I, qu’on revienne en arrière et qu’on aligne de nouveau la fin du droit de l’occupation militaire sur ce qui était prévu à l’article 42 du règlement de La Haye et qui constitue encore aujourd’hui la règle coutumière, à savoir que le droit de l’occupation dure aussi longtemps que dure l’occupation. C’est la seule règle logique au fond. Il y a un droit de l’occupation et celui-ci doit s’applique aussi longtemps que le fait de l’occupation où lui-même persiste. Telle était la règle de l’article 42 du règlement de La Haye, telle est de nouveau la règle dans l’article 3.b du protocole additionnel I. Telle n’est pas la règle pour les parties à la convention de Genève IV en vertu de la disposition précédente. | |||
Cela crée certaines difficultés juridiques. Pourquoi ? D’abord parce qu’il est évident que pour ce qui concerne les parties à la convention IV qui sont également parties au protocole additionnel I, pour ces États, dans leurs relations réciproques, prévaut la règle de l’article III du protocole additionnel I, donc l’ancienne règle : le droit de l’occupation dure aussi longtemps que dure l’occupation. La raison en est tout simplement la lex posteriori. Mais pour les États qui n’auraient ratifié que la convention IV et pas le protocole additionnel I, ce dernier n’est pas applicable dans leurs relations réciproques et dans leurs relations avec des États parties au protocole, ne s’applique que la règle de l’article 6 § 3. Alors se pose la question supplémentaire de savoir si cette règle a été abrogée par la pratique subséquente. Car, en effet, elle n’a jamais été invoquée cette règle depuis 1949. Même Israël ne l’a pas invoquée pour les territoires occupés en Palestine. Il faut bien dire qu’Israël se plaçait de toute manière du point de vue de la convention IV qui ne s’applique pas juridiquement et formellement, et donc, il aurait été mal venu de plaider que l’article 6§3 s’appliquait. Mais enfin, tout de même, ils ne l’ont pas invoqué. Le seul passage où l’on trouve une invocation est la Cour internationale de justice dans l’affaire du mur et elle cite en réalité l’article 6 sans approfondir la question de savoir qu’est-ce que vraiment encore applicable. | |||
En d’autres termes, il y a donc la difficulté de savoir si le droit coutumier subséquent aurait abrogé par la pratique subséquente l’article 6 § 3. Là encore, les opinions divergent dans la doctrine. Le professeur Kolb a lui-même soutenu que l’article 6§3 n’était plus applicable. En 2015 il y croyait encore, et en réalité, il faut être honnête et dire qu’il y a aussi des visions différentes sur la question et que donc s’ouvre une certaine marge d’interprétation et de complexité en la matière, ce qui est mal venu. | |||
Cela montre seulement une chose. Lorsqu’on légifère, il ne faut jamais le faire avec des cas particuliers en tête, notamment lorsque ces cas particuliers sont véritablement assez singuliers. On ne légifère pas avec l’Allemagne en tête, l’Allemagne occupée, on légifère en pensant à des catégories générales, car hard cases made that law. | |||
== The objective end of applicability: end of armed conflict and/or captivity; problem of occupied territories == | == The objective end of applicability: end of armed conflict and/or captivity; problem of occupied territories == |