INTRODUCTORY NOTE TO THE COPENHAGEN PROCESS PRINCIPLES AND GUIDELINES ON THE HANDLING OF DETAINEES IN INTERNATIONAL MILITARY OPERATIONS

摘要

Between 2007 and 2012, state participants and observers from the African Union, United Nations, European Union, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and the International Committee for the Red Cross ("ICRC") attended a series of closed-door meetings with the aim of developing principles to guide detentions in international military operations. Called the Copenhagen Process on Handling Detainees in International Military Operations ("Copenhagen Process"), the meetings focused specifically on international military operations in the context of noninternational armed conflicts (i.e., where foreign states join a host state to defend against a rebel group) and situations that fall short of armed conflict (i.e., "peace operations," where foreign states come together to help a host state maintain a fragile peace, most often under the auspices of United Nations peacekeeping operations). The Copenhagen Process concluded in October 2012 with a set of sixteen principles and guidelines ("Principles") reproduced below. Participants agreed to promote the Principles in relevant international and regional fora; the chairman of the process, Denmark's ambassador Thomas Winkler, stated that he hoped to produce an outcome document that would receive United Nations and international acceptance. The Copenhagen Process was not, however, intended to write new law, and the Principles are not binding.