4 The Legal Personality of NGOs in International Humanitarian Law: Is That the Question?

Abstract

This chapter examines if, after the adoption of the 1949 Geneva Conventions and 1977 Additional Protocols, the States recognised certain non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as the organisations cited in international humanitarian law (IHL) treaties. Some NGOs state that they are humanitarian and impartial, thus invoking the principles without claiming to be humanitarian body, according to the terms of the Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocols. National Societies, the Federation and the ICRC are impartial humanitarian bodies according to IHL treaties. In the seventeenth century, Leibniz created the theory of international legal personality. Scholars have used both the recognition and formal conception theories to establish whether the ICRC, Federation, National Societies and NGOs have an international legal personality. The idea that international law provisions can be directly binding on individuals and NGOs dates back at least to the sixteenth century.Keywords: Geneva Conventions; humanitarian body; international humanitarian law (IHL); international legal personality; National Societies; non-governmental organization (NGO)