GLOSSARY

Armed conflict

An international armed conflict may be said to exist when- ever there is resort to armed force between two or more States; non-international armed conflicts are protracted armed confrontations occurring between governmental armed forces and the forces of one or more armed groups, or between such groups arising on the territory of a State party to the Geneva Conventions of 1949.

Armed actors

People bearing weapons on behalf of an authority: for instance, military personnel, law enforcement officers, security forces, or organized armed groups.

Authority

Any State or non-State body responsible under domestic or international law for the behaviour of armed actors and/or for the well-being of the population.

Health care

Prevention, diagnosis, treatment or control of diseases, injuries or disabilities, as well as measures ensuring the health of mothers and young children. The term also encompasses activities that ensure, or provide support for, access for the wounded and sick to these health-care services; that is, activities such as searching for, collecting or transporting the wounded and sick, or the administration of health-care facilities.

Health-care personnel

All those working in the area of health care. This includes:

• people with professional health-care qualifications, e.g. doctors, nurses, paramedics, physiotherapists, pharmacists;
• people working in hospitals, clinics and first-aid posts, ambulance drivers, administrators of hospitals, or personnel working in the community in their professional capacity;
• staff and volunteers of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement involved in delivering health care;
• 'medical’ personnel of armed forces;
• personnel of health-oriented international and non-governmental organizations;
• first-aiders.

Other emergencies

The term ‘other emergencies’ refers to situations such as civil unrest, riots, State repression, violence in the aftermath of elections alleged to have been unfair, organized urban violence between gangs, or demonstrations. In these situations, the authorities in power often make extensive use of police forces, or even the armed forces, to maintain or restore law and order.
While such situations do not reach the threshold of armed conflict, the consequences, in humanitarian terms, can be serious. The human cost may take a number of forms: death or injury to large numbers of people; large-scale arrests; imprisonment of a large number of people for “political” reasons; ill-treatment or inhumane conditions of detention; suspension of fundamental judicial guarantees, either as part of the promulgation of a state of emergency or simply as a matter of fact; or allegations of forced disappearance.
The violence during these ‘other emergencies’ is committed by large groups of individuals (who may or may not be representatives of the State) acting as a collective entity. The term ‘other emergencies’ does not cover interpersonal violence between, for example, couples or in institutional settings such as schools, workplaces, prisons and nursing homes.