A. The legal framework for identifying individuals An investigation’s mandate and the context in which it operates will determine which of the following primary legal regimes apply: • international human rights law • international humanitarian law, or the law of armed conflict • crimes under international law • the domestic law of the State concerned. In their own way, the various regimes differ as to the manner in which individuals can be identified as responsible for violations, abuses and/or crimes.42 1. Violations of international human rights law It is fundamental to international human rights law that States, rather than individuals, bear “responsibility” for human rights violations at the international level.43 As an abstract entity, however, a State does not “act” by itself, but rather through its agents, who may be individually identifiable. To make a finding that a human rights violation has occurred, an investigative body must be satisfied, to the standard of proof adopted, that:44 (a) the incident or violation occurred under the substantive human rights law (e.g., prohibition of torture or discrimination);45 and International Legal Protection of Human Rights in Armed Conflict (HR/PUB/11/01) (2011). The parameters of these legal regimes are included here in summary form only, and the reader is referred to the more extensive treatment in that document, which is itself informed by jurisprudence at various international tribunals and human rights courts and mechanisms. 43 Ibid. pp. 22-24. 44 Standards of proof are discussed below, in part 3 B. 45 This includes any contextual elements that must be proven, such as the applicability of the right, or, in the case of torture under the Convention Against Torture (CAT), for example, that the threshold of “severe” pain has been met. 42 COLLECTING AND ANALYSING THE INFORMATION 29