137 FILLING THE GAP: THE NEW REGIME OF RESPONSIBILITY FOR ARMED NON-STATE ACTORS AGATA KLECZKOWSKA * Abstract Te aim of this article is to explore whether ANSAs as such may bear direct responsibility for their violations of international law. It undertakes the task of both reconstructing the current state of law when it comes to the responsibility of ANSAs, as well as submitting a proposal for a model of direct responsibility of ANSAs. Section II compares the current regulation (or lack thereof ) of responsibility of ANSAs with the regimes of responsibility of States and international organisations under international law. Section III examines how ANSAs may currently be held responsible under international law. Te fnal section seeks to build a model of direct responsibility of ANSAs under international law, drawing on the conclusions from the previous parts. At the same time the article also pays attention to the fact that the situation of diferent ANSAs is diversifed, examining separately the status of insurrectional movements and de facto regimes created by ANSAs. I INTRODUCTION Te motivation behind this article is to critically assess the views which claim that armed non- state actors (ANSAs), as parties to armed conficts, are bound by international law, or at least some of its norms (eg Common Article 3 to the Geneva Conventions and Second Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions), 1 and have an international legal personality, even if the * Assistant Professor, Department of Public International Law, Institute of Law Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences, <agata.kleczkowska@inp.pan.pl>. Te research for this article was supported by a grant from the National Science Centre (Poland) awarded for the research project ‘Liability for Crimes Committed by Armed Non-State Actors - Do- mestic and International Perspective’ (UMO-2016/23/N/HS5/02849). 1 Jean-Marie Henckaerts and Louise Doswald-Beck, Customary International Humanitarian Law (Cambridge Uni- versity Press, 2005) 299, 497-498; Liesbeth Zegveld, Accountability of Armed Opposition Groups in International Law (Cambridge University Press, 2002) 10; Anne Peters, Beyond Human Rights: Te Legal Status of the Individual in International Law (Cambridge University Press, 2016) 223-224; Stephane Ojeda, ‘Te Kampala Convention on Internally Displaced Persons: Some International Humanitarian Law Aspects’ (2010) 29 (3) Refugee Survey Quarterly 58, 65; Ezequiel Hefes, ‘Generating Respect for International Humanitarian Law. Te Establishment of Courts by Organized Non-State Armed Groups in Light of the Principle of Equality of Belligerents’ (2005) 18 Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law 181, 183; Sandesh Sivakumaran, ‘Binding Armed Opposition Groups’ 2006 (55) International and Comparative Law Quarterly 369, 372; Ezequiel Hefes and Brian E Frenkel, ‘Te International Responsibility of Non-State Armed Groups: In Search of the Applicable Rules’ (2017) 8 Goettingen Journal of Inter- national Law 39, 41; Jann K Klefner, ‘Te Applicability of International Humanitarian Law to Organized Armed Groups’ (2011) 93 (882) International Review of the Red Cross 443, 449; Annyssa Bellal and Stuart Casey-Maslen, ‘Rules of Engagement - Protecting Civilians Trough Dialogue with Non-State Actors’, Geneva Academy of Inter- national Humanitarian Law and Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Afairs (October 2011) 24 <https://ssrn.com/ abstract=2163135>; Noam Lubell, Extraterritorial Use of Force Against Non-State Actors (Oxford University Press, 2010) 18.