Today is the first of a four-day hearing at the UK Supreme Court in joined appeals from the High Court (Al-Waheed v Ministry of Defence) and the Court of Appeal (Ministry of Defence v Mohammed and Others), in which the ICJ intervened.
The case concerns the detention of persons in Iraq and Afghanistan during the non-international armed conflict phases of British military operations in those countries. Together with Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Open Society Justice Initiative, the ICJ submitted an intervention in the joined appeal, addressing:
- The complementary application of international humanitarian law (IHL) and international human rights law (IHRL) in situations of armed conflict.
- The lack of authority under IHL, whether treaty or customary law, for internment in situations of non-international armed conflict (NIAC), including consideration of the inapplicability in NIAC of internment rules that govern situations of international armed conflict.
- The requirement that detention in NIACs is compliant with IHRL, the implications of this and the key means by which internment can be lawful while also responsive to the exigencies of the situation.
UK-GlobalSecurity-DetentionArmedConflict-Advocacy-Legal submissons-2016-ENG (download the joint intervention)