The chapter explains that non-state actors controlling the area outside the effective control of the State can incur responsibility for the violations of their obligations under international human rights law. The norms of the responsibility of peace operations and de facto regimes provide an existing but rarely applied legal framework. Peace operations and de facto regimes incur responsibility not only for wrongful acts committed by persons or groups of persons whose conduct is attributable to them, but also for the failure to comply with their own due diligence obligations.

International human rights law binds non-state actors when they exercise effective control over the territory and imposes on them positive obligations in accordance with their effectiveness. Among possible legal bases, the de facto control theory is the most widely accepted explanation under which territorial control, irrespective of the legal title, instigates certain obligations. The chapter first explains that international human rights law has a binding effect on peace operations and de facto regimes. Second, it demonstrates that the specificity of the limits of their positive obligations results from the immunities of peace operations, on the one hand, and from the non-recognised status of de facto regimes, on the other.