Decolonising the civilian in third world national liberation wars

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Within international humanitarian law (IHL) the legal figure of the civilian is conceived as a passive victim of war in need of protection, while civilians who become actively involved in hostilities lose their protections. The distinction between civilians and combatants is accordingly a fundamental principle informing IHL and is considered a standard of civilisation and humane warfare. This paper interrogates what happens when this standard is applied to anticolonial wars, where entire civilian populations participated in self-emancipatory violence and actively blurred this distinction in order to advance their own liberation. Advancing a theory aimed at decolonising the legal figure of the civilian, I analyse the specific nature of anticolonial violence and the call of anticolonial thinkers to deliberately undermine the distinction between civilians and combatants. Building on the ethos of civilian participation articulated by different anticolonial thinkers and adopting a ‘revisionist’ approach, I argue that the passive conception of the civilian at the heart of the Geneva Conventions and the Additional Protocols faces the risk of outlawing anticolonial violence and its political ethos of liberation.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1-26
Number of pages26
JournalMillennium: Journal of International Studies
Early online date12 Feb 2024
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 12 Feb 2024

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • civilian
  • international law
  • decolonisation

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