TITLE:
State Liability for Failure to Prevent Human Rights Violations Committed by Non-State Armed Groups
AUTHORS:
Callixte Mbonigaba
KEYWORDS:
Non-State Armed Groups, State Liability, Civil War, Human Rights Violations
JOURNAL NAME:
Beijing Law Review,
Vol.17 No.2,
June
26,
2026
ABSTRACT: This article seeks to examine whether states have a legal obligation to prevent human rights violations committed by non-state armed groups (NSAGs). While the existing literature answers this question in the affirmative, this research demonstrates that such liability is divided between states supporting NSAGs and states attacked by NSAGs. The study therefore indicates that state liability for failure to prevent human rights violations applies, in principle, for states supporting NSAGs and generally does not apply to states attacked by NSAGs. The study reached this decision by a systematic historical analysis of various sources of law, mainly the international conventions, judicial decisions and works written by various lawyers from the nineteenth century to the current period. Nevertheless, this study determines that such form of liability is insufficient to protect victims of armed conflicts. The article recommends states to conclude an international convention providing for the strict liability for human rights violations committed by NSAGs.