The children (and wives) of foreign ISIS fighters 85 tively under Article 3 and Article 5) list among the basic functions of diplomatic missions and consular posts ‘protecting in the receiving State the interests of the sending State and of its nationals’. Moreover, the VCCR places particular emphasis on States’ duty to safeguard the interests of minors, particularly where any guardianship or trusteeship is required.81 When foreigners, including FTFs and their family members, are captured and detained, or interned in camps, by a third State or a non-State actor as in the case of the SDF, questions arise with regard to the possible exercise of diplomatic protection in response to violations of the ‘international minimum treatment standard’ of aliens abroad.82 The expression ‘diplomatic protection’ is used both formally, ie referring to the protection exercised by a State following exhaustion of local remedies by one of its nationals, and informally, ie the ‘protection of nationals’ as practiced by diplomatic missions and consular posts under customary international law and treaty law.83 Diplomatic protection in its formal sense is defined by the International Law Commission (ILC) in its Draft Articles as meaning ‘the invocation by a State, through diplomatic action or other peaceful means, of the responsibility of another State for an injury caused by an internationally wrongful act to a natural or legal person that is a national of the former State with a view to the implementation of such responsibility’.84 Formal diplomatic protection under customary international law is a right that belongs to the State and each State could choose not only the timing and extent of any action, but first and foremost whether it would take any action at all.85 Notably, a controversial proposal to impose on States 81 Art 5(h) VCCR. On how the ‘international minimum treatment standard’ has been enriched, if not substituted, by human rights law see V Pergantis, ‘Towards a “Humanization” of Diplomatic Protection?’ (2006) 66 ZaöRV 351, 356-357; E Milano, ‘Diplomatic Protection and Human Rights before the International Court of Justice: Re-fashioning Tradition?’ (2004) 35 Netherlands YB Intl L 85, 103, 137-138. 83 See E Denza, ‘Nationality and Diplomatic Protection’ (2018) 65 Netherlands Intl L Rev 463, 473. 84 ibid 466. See ILC, ‘Draft Articles on Diplomatic Protection’ (6 November 2006) UN Doc A/CN.4/L 684. 85 A Vermeer-Künzli, ‘As If: The Legal Fiction in Diplomatic Protection’ (2007) 18 European J Intl L (2007) 37; W Karl Geck, ‘Diplomatic Protection’, in R Bernhardt (ed), Encyclopedia of Public International Law vol 1 (North-Holland 1992) 1056; M Bennouna, ‘Preliminary Report on Diplomatic Protection’ (4 February 1998) UN Doc A/CN.4/484, paras 19-20. 82