Protection of Civilians Military Reference Guide, Second Edition Second Edition | Page 47

Protection of Civilians Military Reference Guide
a. Armed Conflict. This context includes interstate wars, shorter hostilities between nations,
civil wars, insurgencies and counter-insurgencies, some peace enforcement actions, and other
combat situations. By international law, military forces and other parties to a conflict must conduct
their operations according to the following principles:
• Military necessity—actions must fulfill a legitimate military objective.
• Distinction—actions should target combatants and not civilians.
• Proportionality—actions should not cause excessive incidental civilian harm in relation
to the anticipated military advantage to be gained.
• Humanity—actions should not use means that cause unnecessary suffering.
(1) Some combatants intentionally target civilians to inflict terror, reduce popular will to
continue a struggle, punish an adversary, deter or compel civilian behavior, or to achieve other
objectives.
(2) Civilians are often at great risk from incidental harm or collateral damage during
military operations, particularly when some belligerents are irregular elements who are virtually
indistinguishable from civilians. Civilians are also in jeopardy when belligerents of any type are
located among them, to include the intentional and forcible use of civilians as auxiliaries, human
shields, or hostages to dissuade attacks by adversaries.
(3) In many situations, civilians are at risk because, through choice or compulsion, they are
indirectly supporting a party to the conflict. Examples include camp followers, workers on military
bases, labor forces outside of bases, and crews of merchant marine vessels. Other civilians, such
as humanitarian assistance workers, can also be at risk due to a perception that they may be directly
or indirectly supporting a party to a conflict, or because spoilers view them as vulnerable and
convenient targets. While protected under the LOAC/IHL, they could find themselves
inadvertently or deliberately targeted because of their activities or locations.
(4) Civilians may also be in jeopardy immediately after combat situations or in post-
conflict settings. Damaged infrastructure, fires, flooding, destruction of crops, disease, landmines
and other unexploded ordnance, and societal disruption are merely some of the factors that can
result in long-term civilian suffering after any hostilities have stopped. Civilian casualty mitigation
is discussed further in Task 18—Mitigate Civilian Casualties and Task 19—Respond to Incidents
of Civilian Harm.
b. Mass Atrocities. Mass atrocities are widespread and often systematic acts of violence
against civilians or other noncombatants including killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm,
or deliberately inflicting conditions of life that cause serious bodily or mental harm. 25 The
Responsibility to Protect (R2P) framework addresses four major mass atrocity crimes including
genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and ethnic cleansing.
25
Raymond, Bernath, Braum, and Zurcher. Mass Atrocity Prevention and Response Options (MAPRO): A Policy
Planning Handbook (Carlisle, PA: Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute, 2012), 10. Because it does not
have legal standards and burdens of proof associated with it, “mass atrocities” is sometimes preferred as a term to
describe situations of extreme violence towards civilians.
34