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Pacigerence: Legal Status of Peace Agreements Under International Law
Rodrigo Uprimny Yepes, Diana Isabel Güiza Gómez | May 20, 2020
This article explores the exist- ing legal instruments which may confer binding force to such agreements at the international level —an international treaty between a State and an insurgent group, an international treaty signed by a State and third-party States, a special agreement under international humanitarian law, a UN Se- curity Council resolution, and a unilateral declaration of a State—.
In the past, peace processes between a State and an irregular armed group were considered as internal matters and, therefore, were not regulated by international law. During the last decades, though, these processes have had a growing international dimension due, among other reasons, to the possible legal status of peace agreements under international law. This article explores the exist- ing legal instruments which may confer binding force to such agreements at the international level —an international treaty between a State and an insurgent group, an international treaty signed by a State and third-party States, a special agreement under international humanitarian law, a UN Se- curity Council resolution, and a unilateral declaration of a State—. Given the uncertainty regarding the effects of these current legal instruments, this paper raises the notion of pacigerence, which is based on lex pacificatoria and jus post bellum, as well as the Colombian experience. Pacigerence grants an insurgent group legal personality in order to negotiate and sign peace agreements with the same rights and duties as a State, so that those peace agreements can be understood as true, binding treaties.
*The original version in English and Spanish was published in Latin American Law Review Nº 3 (2019): 49-78
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