Conducting hostilities

Lawful combatants

Those who may lawfully take part in hostilities are those who would be entitled to prisoner-of-war status if captured. Any other person taking part in a conflict may be treated as an unprivileged belligerent, or a franc-tireur, and he may be punished if captured. Article 4 of the third Geneva Convention of 1949 and article 43 of the first Protocol of 1977 provide that a lawful combatant is generally a member of the armed forces of a state. The term also includes members of the merchant marine and inhabitants of unoccupied territory who, on the approach of the enemy, spontaneously take up arms to resist the invading forces until the territory has been occupied.

A spy is in a unique position, since he is often a member of the armed forces of a state; but if he acts in disguise in the zone of operations of an enemy in order to obtain information to pass on to his own forces, he may be punished provided he has a trial.

A mercenary is not protected at all; he has the right to be neither a combatant nor a prisoner of war. A mercenary is defined in the first Protocol of 1977 (which neither the United Kingdom nor the United States has ratified) as a person who is specially recruited to take part in a conflict, who is motivated essentially by private gain, and who is paid substantially more than the ordinary armed forces of the state to which he has been recruited. He must not be a national of the recruiting state or a member of the armed forces of a party to the conflict.

Guerrilla fighters are not solely a modern phenomenon, although during and after World War II they became a common feature of armed conflicts, especially those occurring in the developing world. The third Geneva Convention of 1949 required what is called an organized resistance movement to possess four characteristics before its members could be treated as prisoners of war upon capture. These were: (1) being commanded by a person responsible for his subordinates, (2) having a fixed and distinctive sign recognizable at a distance, (3) carrying arms openly, and (4) conducting operations in accordance with the laws and customs of war. In time, it became apparent that two of these four conditions were difficult for guerrilla fighters to meet. Were guerrillas to wear a fixed and distinctive sign recognizable at a distance or carry arms openly, they could hardly operate with any safety in occupied territory. The first Protocol of 1977 made a number of important changes that bind those states that are parties to it. For example, one of the major problems with recognizing guerrilla fighters as lawful combatants is that they may not, in fact, distinguish themselves from the civilian population—in which case, all civilians are placed at risk. Therefore, article 43 of the Protocol requires all combatants to distinguish themselves from the civilian population while they are engaged in an attack or in a military operation preparatory to an attack. However, even if a combatant does not do this, he will still be entitled to treatment as a lawful combatant if he carries his arms openly during each military engagement and during such time as he is visible to the adversary while engaged in a military deployment preceding the launching of an attack in which he is to participate.

A member of the armed forces of a party to a conflict will lose his status as a prisoner of war upon capture if he commits an act of hostility while wearing civilian clothes. In the case of Osman Bin Mohammed v. Public Prosecutor (1968), the Privy Council in London held that members of the Indonesian armed forces who had landed in Singapore during an armed conflict between Indonesia and Malaysia were not entitled to be treated as prisoners of war after having placed a bomb in a civilian building that caused the deaths of civilians. This loss of prisoner status will also apply, among the states that are parties to the first Protocol of 1977, if their combatants do not at least carry their arms openly, as described above.