The Conversation writes
News that a New Zealand army veteran is already in Ukraine helping train civilian fighters, and more are planning to travel to the war zone, raises important questions about what is lawful and what the risks of such actions might be.
As the number of volunteers for the International Legion for the Defense of Ukraine rises to a reported 20,000 from over 50 countries, how does New Zealand respond?
Firstly, there is a difference between “foreign enlistment”, where someone joins another country’s armed forces, and what is often called “foreign fighting”, where someone takes up arms as an individual or volunteer in a group.
New Zealand does not generally prevent people joining another country’s military. In Ukraine, a 2016 presidential decree made it possible for non-Ukrainian citizens to enlist in Ukraine’s armed forces, and in February this year it was announced the International Legion will form part of the nation’s armed forces.
In contrast to foreign enlistment, application of the law to foreign fighting – both internationally and domestically – has always been guided by the nature and context of the conflict, and has varied depending on what was at stake in different political moments in history.
Foreign enlistment generally poses little problem. Its lawfulness depends on the domestic law of the person’s home country (does it allow citizens to fight for another country’s armed forces?) and the law of the destination country – for instance, does it allow non-citizens to enlist?
A New Zealand Army veteran has joined the ranks of Westerners who travelled to Ukraine to train thousands of volunteers how to hold and shoot a gun as the war wages on.https://t.co/Bqc0ZnXsST
— RNZ (@radionz) March 17, 2022
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