ABSTRACT
This chapter examines firstly to their impact on international relations, as evidenced by their transboundary activities or the effect of their internal armed activities outside the borders of a state. Secondly, Armed Non-State Actors (ANSAs) have been a concern for international humanitarian law, notwithstanding the fact that other human rights are endangered and that ANSAs might be operating outside the strict confines of an armed conflict. Thirdly, the individualization of responsibility for violations of humanitarian law and the extended focus on it leads to decreased attention being paid to the accountability of the entity as such. Fourthly, ANSAs ' are less frequently acting as proxies of other states. The inquiry of accountability under these legal regimes will finally reveal that there is a need to move away from the state-centred approach and to adapt international law to the particularities of armed non-state actors, especially as the potential bases for ANSA obligations appear to be expanding.
