Abstract: Nowadays there are different definitions of civil war, or there are attempts to separate it from some other phenomena such as terrorism or armed conflicts of low intensity. They are often linked to a particular ideology, as well as the political consequences that an armed conflict would have if it was characterized as a civil war. International law requires that the conditions under which certain phenomena can be called a civil war arise from the Geneva Convention. Such wars are one of the reasons why humanity today suffers, and especially the countries of the third world, primarily because of mutual knowledge of the warring parties and hatred.