Lawful and unlawful combatants

78. As noted (supra 18–19), distinction between combatants and noncombatants constitutes one of the two cardinal principles of LOIAC. The goal is to ensure in every feasible manner that international armed conflicts be waged among the combatants of the opposing Belligerent Parties and will spare civilians. Lawful combatants are entitled to engage in combat in wartime. That is to say, they are entitled to attack enemy combatants and military objectives (see infra 220, 225) – causing death, injury and destruction – but this ‘licence to kill’ excludes civilians as lawful targets.

79. Combatants fall into two categories:

(i) Members of the armed forces of a Belligerent Party, whether regular or irregular, including paramilitary units incorporated de facto in the armed forces. The specific task assigned to an individual within the military apparatus is irrelevant. The main characteristic of members of the armed forces is that they are trained to engage in combat and fire weapons, even if in practice they serve in auxiliary or administrative position (ranging from legal advisers to drivers or cooks). The only exceptions – as affirmed in Article 43(2) of Additional Protocol I (quoted infra 121) – are medical and religious personnel.

The expression ‘members of the armed forces’ covers only those persons who are actually serving in the armed forces. Legal liability for conscription by itself does not turn a person into a combatant until he has been called up.