Conduct of hostilities and detention

In pursuit of the core purposes of protecting civilians, minimizing unnecessary suffering, and enabling effective military operations, LOAC includes comprehensive rules for the conduct of hostilities - that is, how parties to a conflict carry out attacks and other military operations. Military operations also include detention of enemy personnel and, on occasion, civilians who pose a threat based on their individual conduct and activities. Proper protections and safeguards for such detention are critical to ensuring respect for human dignity and basic rights, particularly in the context of the existential and exigent circumstances and pressures of war. This chapter provides a detailed analysis of the law of armed conflict rules and principles for targeting - including the definition of military objective, the attacking and defending parties’ precautionary obligations, and proportionality - and for detention of both prisoners of war, unprivileged belligerents, and civilians.