著者

藤井 篤

出版者

一般財団法人 日本国際政治学会

雑誌

国際政治 (ISSN:04542215)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.2018, no.193, pp.193_123-193_139, 2018-09-10 (Released:2018-12-19)

参考文献数

67

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This article examines how the International Committee of the Red Cross, (ICRC) struggled to perform its humanitarian mission in responding to the Algerian War, of 1954-1962. The Geneva Conventions of 1949 define rules concerning the protection of wounded and sick soldiers, prisoners of war, and civilians in armed conflicts of an international character, and their Common Article 3 stipulates that these parties should be equally protected during armed conflicts not of an international character. In the 1950’s and 1960’s, it was not clear whether or how this measure could be applied to a colonial conflict, yet from the beginning of the conflict, the ICRC made efforts to offer its humanitarian services to all involved parties in the spirit of the Conventions, trying to preserve its principle of neutrality in the midst of antagonistic politics among parties with an extreme imbalance of power and resources. In order to achieve its mission on the battlefields of Algeria, the ICRC had to approach both the French government, which was determined to defend French Algeria, and the Front of National Liberation, (FLN), which sought the abolition of colonialism and Algerian independence. On the one hand, many Algerians suspected to be terrorists came to be arrested by police or were forced by local governors to live in “accommodation camps,” and with the consent of the French authorities, the ICRC was able to dispatch a total of 10 missions during the war to visit accommodation camps for Algerian prisoners of war and civilians, and investigate the living conditions and treatment of the detainees. As the result of the ICRC’s repeated investigations and reports, considerable improvements were made to the material aspects of living conditions of these facilities, although torture and other violence to Algerians continued in and out of the camps throughout of the conflict. However, the ICRC encountered extreme difficulties in offering the same service to the FLN, which was waging a guerrilla war and so lacked stable camps for French captives in Algeria, and the achievement of its mission to the FLN was therefore very limited compared with their services at the French facilities.