Negotiations are talks that take place between at least two of the warring parties in a state dispute. To qualify as negotiations, the discussions must be related to one or more issues related to the armed conflict, such as ceasefires, prisoner exchange or incompatibility. Comment Any incompatibility can have an infinite number of belligerent parties. The warring parties are divided between primary and secondary warring parties, and between ruling parties and non-governmental parties. Note that the UCDP definition of civilian does not refer to the definition of civilians in international law. Civilians in UCDP data are unarmed persons who are not active members of state security forces, or members of an organized armed militia or opposition group. Government officials such as members of parliament, governors, and council members are also excluded and are instead considered representatives of a state government. A conflict, both governmental and non-governmental, is considered active if there are at least 25 combat-related deaths per calendar year in one of the conflict`s dyads. This rule also applies to the regulation of dyad activity and the activities of the main warring parties. However, a secondary belligerent party is considered active if it actively supports one of the main parties with regular troops as part of the declared incompatibility. In other words, a secondary belligerent party does not need to suffer or suffer 25 combat-related deaths alone to be classified as active. The cessation of the use of armed force shall take place whenever the conflict or the warring party does not reach the level of involvement in a calendar year.
This happens when the incompatibility is resolved either by agreement or by victory; when a party ceases to exist; or if the use of armed force does not meet the criteria for 25 combat-related deaths. Ending the use of armed force is not coded for secondary warring parties. This is because secondary parts do not have to meet the same criteria as main parts to be included. An ended conflict or belligerent party is classified as over by one of the following events: 1) victory; (2) peace agreements; (3) ceasefire agreements; 4) low activity; (5) no activity; or 6) other (the last three are sometimes grouped together as a different outcome) Peace agreements are also classified between comprehensive peace agreements, which include all conflict dyads, and dyadic agreements, in which at least one of the warring parties to the conflict is excluded. Commentary The UCDP deals only with organised opposition. The focus is on armed conflicts with deliberate and planned political campaigns and not on spontaneous violence. Organizations of this type are, so to speak, state-type entities and generally pose a very different threat to those in power than the unorganized opposition. In the case of multiple organizational levels, such as individual organizations that also act together as part of an umbrella organization, the simple rule applies according to which organization “has a say.” If the umbrella organization is only an organization in the nominal sense of the term and the individual organizations make their own political decisions and carry out military actions independently, the individual organizations are treated as belligerent parties. If the umbrella organization commands the individual organizations, then it is the corresponding unit. A war party can be of two types: either a ruling party or a non-governmental party. A party is a government, if it is a government, if not, it is a non-governmental party.
The nature of the party has nothing to do with which side the party supports in the conflict. Comment Ending the use of armed force is coded for both the conflict and the warring party. The cessation of the use of armed force for the conflict is determined like others, if, for example, the government or state ceases to exist. The general rule for counting combat-related deaths is moderation. All combat-related deaths are based on each programmer`s analysis of the conflict. Every combat-related death must be verified in some way. All figures are broken down as much as possible. Any numbers that are not trustworthy are ignored as much as possible in the encoding. Sometimes there are situations where there is a lack of information about disaggregated combat-related deaths.
In this case, the encoder can rely on sources that provide figures already calculated either for specific incidents or for the total number of deaths in the conflict. The UCDP takes these records into account for specific incidents and for an entire armed conflict if they fit the definition. If this is not the case or if there is no independent verification of the number, it cannot be accepted. In the UCDP`s view, a peace agreement cannot survive if the main parties are no longer parties to the contract. When a party formally withdraws from a peace agreement, the agreement is deemed terminated. It is sometimes difficult to determine whether a peace agreement has ended. For example, one party may be formally committed to the peace agreement, but secretly have belligerent militias on the ground. In such a situation, the Party should be judged on its sincerity.
While the violence clearly shows that one of the parties has left the agreement, the group does not appear to be sincere in its commitment to peace or the peace agreement; The agreement must therefore be interpreted as having ended. Commentary The UCDP deals with who (de facto) controls power in practice. We do not care who is the rightful holder of (de jure) power. The UCDP uses capital control as an indicator of de facto government. That is not the same as saying that we want to know whether the current government is a functioning government. The government can control the capital and very little else, but we still treat that party like the government. Almost by definition, when an armed conflict takes place in a country, the government is unlikely to be fully operational. Deaths in the three categories of organized violence recorded by the UCDP. For state and non-state armed conflicts, these are defined as combat-related deaths (i.e.
, the use of armed force between warring parties in a conflict dyad, whether governmental or non-state, resulting in deaths). Unilateral violence is a death resulting from attacks by organized actors against unarmed civilians. Military necessity, along with distinction, proportionality, humanity (sometimes called unnecessary suffering) and honour (sometimes called chivalry) are the five most cited principles of international humanitarian law governing the lawful use of force in armed conflict. Martial law is considered distinct from other legal entities – such as the domestic law of a particular belligerent in a conflict – which may provide additional legal limits to the conduct or justification of war. Combat-related deaths are defined as the use of armed force between warring parties in a conflict dyad, whether governmental or non-state, resulting in deaths. Commentary “Armed conflict” is also called “state conflict”, as opposed to “non-state conflicts” in which none of the warring parties is a government. This page contains some of the most important definitions for UCDP data in alphabetical order. For more definitions, see the UCDP record codebooks, which can be found and downloaded from the UCDP downloads website. The main warring parties that first declared the incompatibility must be leading parties for a conflict to be classified as interstate. Incompatibility criteria are essential because the existence of ruling parties on both sides of a conflict is not sufficient to conclude that it is an inter-state conflict, as such cases may even include intra-state armed conflicts with foreign involvement/internationalization.
Comment The type of information presented in troop strength is not comparable across countries or organizations. As far as possible, the UCDP distinguishes between the armed forces as a whole and the forces actually deployed in the armed conflict. But often, there is no information to make this distinction. Most often, the entire armed forces are presented to the site government, not just the army. If paramilitaries and gendarmes are involved, this will be noted in the commentary. For the opposition group, all the armed force at the scene of the conflict is counted. In the case of secondary warring parties, only the forces active at the scene of the conflict are counted. The criterion for determining activity is at least 25 combat-related deaths in the respective year in the war party dyad. The general rule is that during a declared war, all sexual intercourse, correspondence, and relations between U.S. citizens and subjects of enemy states that could be beneficial or comforting to the enemy are prohibited.