ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the status of individuals during armed conflict, combatant and civilian, and the challenges inherent to the application of this bifurcated system. Part 2 begins by first discussing the status of individuals in an international armed conflict. This analysis will look at the historical background to the development of the combatant and civilian categories, and highlight areas of agreement, as well as areas where consensus has proven more elusive. Thereafter, the concept of unlawful or unprivileged belligerency and the status of unlawful participants in armed conflict will be discussed, followed by assessment of civilian status and the protection it affords. Part 3 then transitions to the status conversation during a non-international armed conflict. This will focus specifically on the lack of combatant status, at least in the legal sense of the term, in non-international armed conflict, and the effects of this. Finally, Part 4 will examine various unique categories of persons protected or provided for under IHL, chiefly child soldiers, mercenaries, and journalists.
