Rebel human rights abuses during civil wars: Introducing the rebel human rights violations dataset
| Published date | 01 May 2024 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/00223433221147940 |
| Author | James Igoe Walsh,Justin M Conrad,Beth Elise Whitaker |
| Date | 01 May 2024 |
https://doi.org/10.1177/00223433221147940
Journal of Peace Research
2024, Vol. 61(3) 477 –488
© The Author(s) 2023
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DOI: 10.1177/00223433221147940
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1225162JPR0010.1177/00223433221147940Journal of Peace ResearchWalsh et al.
research-article2023
Special Data Feature
Rebel human rights abuses during civil
wars: Introducing the rebel human rights
violations dataset
James Igoe Walsh
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Justin M Conrad
University of Georgia
Beth Elise Whitaker
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Abstract
Contemporary studies of civil conflict focus heavily on combatant treatment of civilians. Research on human rights
(HR) abuses committed by s tates has benefitted from several widely available datasets on state violations. By
comparison, researchers and policymakers have been limited by a dearth of data on violations committed by rebel
groups. We introduce a new resource, the Rebel Human Rights Violations (RHRV) dataset, which measures the
frequency with which rebel groups engage in eight HR abuses. The data include information for all rebel groups
around the world between 1990 and 2018, and capture a wide range of violations, including arbitrary killing,
detention, forced recruitment, property damage, torture, sexual violence, forced displacement and movement
restriction. The RHRV provides new opportunities for researchers and policymakers to analyze an important aspect
of civil conflict: the abuse of civilian populations by rebel groups.
Keywords
civil war, human rights, rebellion
Introduction
Despite being bound by international humanitarian law
to respect non-combatants (Slim, 2010), rebel groups
commit a wide range ofhuman rights (HR) abuses during
civil wars. The International Criminal Count and ad hoc
tribunals have prosecuted rebel commanders and soldiers
for violations of laws of armed conflict. With some
important exceptions, however, existing research focuses
primarily on rebel use of violence that has the deliberate
aim of inflicting lethal harm againstnon-combatants, such
as massacres, indiscriminate bombings and terrorist
attacks. This emphasis on lethal violations, based in part
on the availability of cross-national data, has the effect of
overlooking the many non-lethal ways in which rebel
groups violate the rights of civilian populations.
We introduce the Rebel Human Rights Violations
(RHRV) dataset that measures a wider range of abuses
committed by rebels. It includes episodes of lethal vio-
lence but also detention, forced recruitment, property
damage, torture, sexual violence, forced displacement
and the restriction of movement. Building on existing
projects that measure violations of physical integrity
rights by governments, we use annual HR reports issued
by the United States Department of State (USDOS) and
Amnesty International (AI) to systematically document
the occurrence and scale of these abuses by rebel groups
for all civil wars in each year from 1990 to 2018. The
Corresponding author:
jwalsh@uncc.edu
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