Episode Details

In international armed conflict, citizens of non-belligerent States can (and do) find their way onto the battlefield. Whether they arrive as volunteers, security company employees, or mercenaries, so-called third-country nationals test the common assumption that States fight wars with armies of their own loyal citizens. But foreign fighters are nothing new. They are a regular feature of war, and the law of armed conflict reaches and protects them like anyone else. In this post, ICRC Senior Legal Adviser Ramin Mahnad explains what the Geneva Conventions and other sources of the law of armed conflict – international humanitarian law (IHL) – say about fighters who are not nationals of the belligerent States. Read the full blog post here: https://blogs.icrc.org/law-and-policy/2022/10/06/third-country-nationals-international-armed-conflict/