What Constitutes Direct Participation in Hostilities Sample Clauses

What Constitutes Direct Participation in Hostilities. While the ICRC study notes that customary international law enshrines the principle, it acknowledges that ‘a clear and uniform definition of direct parti- cipation in hostilities has not been developed in state practice’.123 As dis- cussed below, a subsequent ICRC document, ‘Interpretative Guidance on the Notion of Direct Participation in Hostilities’, was therefore published in 2009 in an attempt to provide greater guidance on the meaning of direct participa- tion, when and for how long civilian immunity is lost.124 While the Guidance has itself been subject of considerable dispute from a range of sources and should not be taken as a categorical statement of the law in this area, it pro- vides one important reference point from an undisputedly authoritative source on IHL.125 120 The Supreme Court’s starting point, based on previous jurisprudence, was that an armed conflict exists ‘between Israel and [] various terrorist organizations…’. Targeted Killings judgment, supra note 7, para. 16. This may reflect an unduly broad approach to the defini- tion of armed conflict, rendering it questionable whether the situation should have been governed by IHL as the Court determined. Even so, the court’s approach to the interpretation of IHL may yet be instructive. See also Chapter 7B3 on this judgment and the interplay of IHL/IHRL. 121 Ibid., at para. 31. 122 The legal framework is discussed in the section that follows. Its application and debates post-9/11 are in Part B below. 123 ‘ICRC Study on Customary IHL’, supra note 78, p. 23. 124 Interpretative Guidance on the Notion of Direct Participation in Hostilities under IHL’, ICRC, 2009 (hereinafter ‘ICRC DPH Guidance’). 125 Critiques and discussion of the ‘ICRC DPH Guidance’ abound. See e.g. X. Xxxxxxx and