The International Armed Conflict between India and Pakistan over Kashmir Added to our RULAC

Our Rule of Law in Armed Conflicts (RULAC) online provides a detailed analysis and legal classification of the international armed conflict (IAC) between India and Pakistan over Kashmir.

Visitors can discover an overview of the conflict since its inception in 1947, recent developments, the factual and methodological basis for its classification as an IAC, parties to this conflict and the applicable international law.

‘The disputed status of Kashmir has been a source of conflict between India and Pakistan for more than 70 years, with a devastating impact on the civilian population’ stresses Chiara Redaelli, Research Fellow at the Geneva Academy.

‘The threshold for classifying a situation as an IAC is very low: whenever there is resort to violence between two states, there is an IAC’ underlines Chiara Redaelli. ‘Hence, although there is no fully fledged war between India and Pakistan, international humanitarian law of IACs continues to apply between the two countries due to regular border skirmishes and ceasefire violations that have increased since 2013’ she adds.