After the Second World War this term was added to the list of those long used to indicate the various ways of ceasing or suspending hostilities, namely, suspension of hostilities (truce), capitulation and armistice. The new term has caused some confusion. It has been adopted mainly by the press and politicians as being more vivid, taken as it is from military terminology, in which it is the contrary of “open-fire”. Although sometimes used by the United Nations Security Council, in legal language it can mean only the immediate effect to be produced by one of the above-mentioned conventions between belligerents.
CASES
Colombia, Response of armed groups to COVID-19
Iran/Iraq, 70,000 Prisoners of War Repatriated
UN, The Situation Concerning Western Sahara
ICTR, The Prosecutor v. Jean-Paul Akayesu
Case Study, Armed Conflicts in the former Yugoslavia
Democratic Republic of the Congo, Conflict in the Kivus
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Constitution of Safe Areas
Case Study, Armed Conflicts in the Great Lakes Region (1994-2005)
ICTY, The Prosecutor v. Boškoski
United States Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, The Ministries Case
Croatia, Prosecutor v. Rajko Radulovic and Others
Eritrea/Ethiopia, Awards on Military Objectives
Georgia/Russia, Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Conflict in South Ossetia
Russian Federation, Chechnya, Operation Samashki
The Conflict in Western Sahara
Sudan, Report of the UN Commission of Enquiry on Darfur
ICTY, The Prosecutor v. Martić