04/02/2020
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40. Almost every conflict resolution will involve the parties to the
conflict and the mediator or facilitator of the settlement, or
persons or bodies under whose auspices the settlement took
place but who are not at all parties to the conflict, are not
contracting parties and who do not claim any obligation from
the contracting parties or incur any obligation from the
settlement.
41. In this case, the parties to the conflict are the lawful
authority of the State and the RUF which has no status
of statehood and is to all intents and purposes a faction
within the state. The non-contracting signatories of the
Lomé Agreement were moral guarantors of the
principle that, in the terms of Article XXXIV of the
Agreement, "this peace agreement is implemented with
integrity and in good faith by both parties". The moral
guarantors assumed no legal obligation. It is recalled that
the UN by its representative appended, presumably for
avoidance of doubt, an understanding of the extent of the
agreement to be implemented as not including certain
international crimes.
42. An international agreement in the nature of a treaty must
create rights and obligations regulated by international law so
that a breach of its terms will be a breach determined under
international law which will also provide principle means of
enforcement. The Lomé Agreement created neither
rights nor obligations capable of being regulated by
international law. An agreement such as the Lomé
Agreement which brings to an end an internal armed
conflict no doubt creates a factual situation of
restoration of peace that the international community
acting through the Security Council may take note of.
That, however, will not convert it to an international
agreement which creates an obligation enforceable in
international, as distinguished from municipal, law. A
breach of the terms of such a peace agreement resulting in
resumption of internal armed conflict or creating a threat to
peace in the determination of the Security Council may
indicate a reversal of the factual situation of peace to be
visited with possible legal consequences arising from the new
situation of conflict created. Such consequences such as
action by the Security Council pursuant to Chapter VII arise
from the situation and not from the agreement, nor from the
obligation imposed by it. Such action cannot be regarded as a
remedy for the breach. A peace agreement which settles
an internal armed conflict cannot be ascribed the same
status as one which settles an international armed
conflict which, essentially, must be between two or
more warring States. The Lomé Agreement cannot be
characterised as an international instrument. x x x"
(Emphasis, italics and underscoring supplied)
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