Direct Participation in Hostilities and Its Effect on Proportionality

Abstract

Abstract Unlike members of the armed forces and combatants who can be targeted, civilians are protected from direct attack. However, civilians do not always enjoy protection. When civilians take a direct part in the hostilities, such as by taking up arms against the enemy, they lose their civilian protection and can be lawfully targeted. Classifying a civilian who is directly participating in hostilities as such is relevant to proportionality as well as to the principle of distinction, as it changes the proportionality analysis in two complementary ways. First, an attack on a civilian that is taking a direct part in hostilities would arguably augment the expected military advantage of the strike. Second, such civilians do not enjoy protection from attack and are also not considered civilians in the proportionality assessment. This means that classifying civilians as direct participants in hostilities might make an otherwise disproportionate attack proportionate, and vice versa. This chapter explains the concept of direct participation in hostilities, and its relevance to the proportionality analysis.