Basic Principles of the Legal Status of the Combatants Struggling Against Colonial and Alien Domination and Racist Regimes

A/RES/3103(XXVIII)View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, published in 1974.

What subjects does this mandate have?

7 subjects

Armed Conflicts Legal Status Mercenaries National Liberation Movements Principles Prisoners of War Self-Determination of Peoples

What’s in this document?

5 operative paragraphs

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The struggle of peoples under colonial and alien domination and racist regimes for the implementation of their right to self-determination and independence is legitimate and in full accordance with the principles of internatior.al law.

Any attempt to suppress the struggle against colonial and alien domination and racist regimes is incompatible with the Charter of the United Nations,

the Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning F ricndly Relatio11s and Cn-opcwtinn among States in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Co:onial Countries and Peoples21 and constitutes a threat to international p:::ace and security.

The armed conflicts involving the struggle of peoples against colonial and alien domination and racist regimes are to be regarded as international armed conflicts in the sense of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, and the legal status envisaged to apply to the combatants in the 1949 Geneva Conventions and other inte:-national instruments is to apply to the persons cng;,ged in armed struggle against colonial and alien domination and racist regimes.

-\ The cnrnbaiants struggling against colonial and alien domination and raci,t regimes captured as prisoners arc to be accorded the status of prisoners of war and their treatment should be in accordance with the provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, of

12 August 1949.

19 United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 75, No. 972 p. 135.

20 Ibid., No. 973, p. 287.

' 21 Resolution 1514 (XV).

The use of mercenaries by colonial and racist regimes against the national liberation movements struggling for their freedom and independence from the yoke of colonialism and alien domination is c~nsidered to be a criminal act and the mercenanes should accordingly be punished as criminals.

The violation of the legal status of the combatants struggling against colonial and alien domination and racist regimes in the course of armed conflicts entails full responsibility in accordance with the norms of international law.

~1011;

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

What subjects does this mandate have?

What’s in this document?

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