A/HRC/17/44 exercising de facto control over territory akin to that of a Governmental authority, the Commission will examine also allegations of human rights violations committed by NTC forces. The Commission notes that NTC has made a public undertaking in which it committed to “build a constitutional democratic civil State based on the rule of law, respect for human rights and the guarantee of equal rights and opportunities for all its citizens including full political participations by all citizens and equal opportunities between men and women and the promotion of women empowerment”.52 (b) International humanitarian law 63. International humanitarian law binds all parties to an armed conflict. The Libyan Arab Jamahiriya is a party to the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 as well as the Protocols I and II Additional thereto. It is also a party to a range of other international humanitarian law instruments concerning weaponry. 53 The Libyan Arab Jamahiriya is also a party to the Organization of African Unity Convention for the Elimination of Mercenarism in Africa and the International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries. It has not, however, ratified the Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May be Deemed to Be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects; the Convention on Cluster Munitions; or the Convention on the Prohibition, Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of AntiPersonnel Mines and on Their Destruction. The Libyan Arab Jamahiriya is also a party to the Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict. 64. In relation to the non-international armed conflict which developed in Libya, of particular significance are the provisions of Protocol II together with the provisions of common article 3 of the Geneva Conventions (“common article 3”). The parties to the conflict are also bound by the provisions of customary international humanitarian law. 54 65. As a result of some additional treaty action by the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, some of the standards applicable to the Government of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya are higher. In particular, by ratifying the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict, the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya has agreed to take all feasible steps to ensure that members of its Armed Forces under 18 years of age do not take a direct part in hostilities and that persons under 18 are not compulsorily recruited into its Armed Forces. By virtue of making a declaration under article 3, the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya has declared 18 years of age as the age of voluntary recruitment. The Optional Protocol also obliges the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya to take all feasible measures to prevent armed groups from recruiting and using in hostilities those under 18 (art. 4). 66. In relation to the international armed conflict, the full provisions of the four Geneva Conventions of 1949, as well as customary international humanitarian norms relating to international armed conflict apply to engagements. The Libyan Arab Jamahiriya and most of the States involved in the military intervention have also ratified Protocol additional to 52 53 54 See www.ntclibya.org/english/the-statement/. A press release concerning this undertaking was issued on 29 March, see http://web.1libya.org/2011/03/31/ntc-press-release-a-vision-of-a-democratic-libya/. Libya is a party to the Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare, the Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction, the Convention on the Prohibition on the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction. See Jean-Marie Henckaerts and Louise Doswald-Beck, eds., for the International Committee of the Red Cross, Customary International Humanitarian Law, 2 vols. (Cambridge, ICRC and Cambridge University Press, 2005) (henceforth the ICRC Study on Customary International Humanitarian Law). 21