To Be or Not to Be?: Legal Identity in Crisis in Non-International Armed Conflicts

Abstract

Examining the situations of Syria, Iraq and Ukraine, this article demonstrates how individuals living outside the control of the de jure government struggle to access birth registration and civil status documentation in times of non-international armed conflict. Evaluating how the right to legal identity is protected in international law, the article highlights the need for legal identity to be better protected in armed conflict, so that its conferral and denial is not used as a weapon by the fighting parties.

Keywords: SDG16.9, legal identity, non-international armed conflicts, civil status documentation