Belligerent Communities

Recognition of Recognition of Belligerent Communities

In the context of international law, the legal resource A Dictionary of Law, provides a definition of Belligerent Communities, Recognition of Recognition of Belligerent Communities : The formal acknowledgment by a state of the existence of a civil war between another state’s central government and the peoples of an area within its territorial boundaries. Such recognition brings about the conventional operation of the rules of war, in particular those humanitarian restraints upon the combatants introduced by the international law of armed force. Another result of recognition of belligerency is that both the rebels and the parent central government are entitled to exercise belligerent rights and are subject to the obligations imposed on belligerents. Following recognition, third states have the rights and obligations of *neutrality.

Compare insurgency.