Legal qualification of IT specialists from the international humanitarian law perspective
Abstract
Ever-evolving technologies significantly affect modern warfare. The use of information and communication technologies (hereinafter — ICTs) for malicious purposes in armed conflicts is increasing significantly. Moreover, there are new potential armed conflict participants, such as IT specialists. The question arises: how participation of IT specialists in armed conflicts may be qualified in accordance with the existing international humanitarian law (hereinafter — IHL)? Are they still civilians protected from attacks, or do they lose this protection as legitimate combatants? This situation highlights new legal challenges as the main rules of IHL were drafted in a very different technological age. The present research focuses on analysing the adequacy of application of the IHL in assessing the status of IT specialists in modern armed conflicts. National positions of more than 30 States with regard to the relevant problem and academic approaches were examined. The author concludes that the terminological limits of IHL make it very difficult to classify IT specialists as a specific category of persons within armed conflict. The category of direct participation of hostilities sometimes may be the most perspective, however, it has its own ambiguities. IHL norms do not take into account new capacities such as the remote location of IT specialists, the anonymity and secrecy inherent in their activities, etc. In addition, some IHL standards demonstrate their practical inapplicability to real-life situations involving the malicious use of ICTs. Nevertheless, the mix of potential statuses of IT specialists can be very dangerous for the protection of both armed conflict participants and civilians in general. Therefore, in accordance with the operating hypothesis, it is demonstrated that IHL as a regulator is poorly adequate in its application to ICTs due to corresponding restrictions of terms used, which are not adjusted to non-traditional armed conflicts. De lege ferenda, adjusting the interpretation of direct participation in hostilities category as most suitable to IT specialists in a cautious manner might be a possible solution.
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