Civilian - Civilians in Modern Conflicts

Civilians in Modern Conflicts

The actual position of the civilian in modern war remains problematical. It is complicated by a number of phenomena, including:

• the fact that many modern wars are essentially civil wars, in which the application of the laws of war is often difficult, and in which the distinction between soldier and civilian is particularly hard to maintain;
• guerrilla warfare and terrorism, both of which tend to involve combatants assuming the appearance of civilians;
• the growth of doctrines of "effects-based war", under which there is less focus on attacking an adversary's troops than on undermining the adversary regime's sources of power, which may include apparently civilian objects such as electrical power stations; and
• the use of "lawfare", a term that refers to attempts to discredit the adversary by making its forces appear to be in violation of the laws of war, for example by attacking civilians who had been deliberately used as human shields.

In the 1990s and early 2000s it was often claimed that 90 percent of the victims of modern wars were civilians. These claims, though widely believed, are not supported by detailed examination of the evidence relating to some of the wars (including in former Yugoslavia) that had been central to the claims.

In the opening years of the twenty-first century, despite the many problems associated with it, the legal category of the civilian has been the subject of considerable attention in public discourse, in the media and at the United Nations, and in justification of certain uses of armed force to protect endangered populations. It has "lost none of its political, legal and moral salience."

Although it is often assumed that civilians are essentially passive onlookers of war, sometimes they have active roles in conflicts. These may be quasi-military, as when in November 1975 the Moroccan government organized the "green march" of citizens to cross the border into the former Spanish colony of Western Sahara to claim the territory for Morocco - all at the same time as Moroccan forces entered the territory clandestinely. In addition, and without necessarily calling into question their status as non-combatants, civilians sometimes take part in campaigns of nonviolent civil resistance as a means of opposing dictatorial rule or foreign occupation: sometimes such campaigns happen at the same time as armed conflicts or guerrilla insurrections, but they are usually distinct from them as regards both their organisation and participation.

Under international maritime law and aviation law a distinction is made between crew and passengers that is similar to that of combatants and civilians under the laws of war. Under their own municipal law governments may extend the definition of who is a civilian to exclude those who work for the emergency services, because members of the emergency services may from time to time need additional legal powers over and above those usually available to ordinary citizens.

Officials directly involved in the maiming of civilians are conducting offensive military operations and do not qualify as civilians.