LOIAC affords special protection to certain categories of persons, ‘either because they are regarded as especially vulnerable or on account of the functions they perform’.1229 Those specially protected include both combatants and civilians. Combatants endowed with special protection gain, above all, immunity from attack. With civilians, the position is different. All civilians (not directly participating in hostilities; see supra 587 et seq.) are anyhow entitled to immunity from attack: when special protection is granted, some complementary measures of protection are envisioned. What needs to be underscored is that the addition of these forms of greater protection to selected subsets of civilians – e.g., women and children (see infra 672 et seq.) – does not detract from the general protection accorded to all civilians. Thus, the special protection of women and children does not diminish in any way the unlawfulness of an attack against male civilians in the prime of their lives.1230