Status and protection of persons

Once the existence and nature of the armed conflict is determined, the next key steps in applying the law of armed conflict are to identify the status of persons in the zone of combat and their rights, obligations, and privileges. Individual status determines whether a person can lawfully engage in hostilities, is immune from attack, or is entitled to be a prisoner of war if captured, along with other rights, privileges, and protections. LOAC’s core principle of distinction mandates that parties to a conflict distinguish between those who are fighting and those who are not, and only direct attacks at the former. Operationalizing this essential rule therefore demands a framework for categorizing persons to ensure clear definitions and standards to guide those determinations. This chapter introduces the basic rules for determining the status of individuals as either combatants or civilians in international armed conflict, and highlights the key protections and privileges that accompany each status category. Where appropriate, it incorporates relevant issues and concepts from non-international armed conflict, which does not have specific defined status categories for individuals.