by Jessica Poarch

Have you ever sat back and thought about how many different groups of people are on the ground in the middle of an armed conflict? Lots but the Law of Armed Conflict recognizes only three – civilians, combatants, and medical personnel.

One example of this principle can be seen through Sandesh Sivakumaran’s recent post to the Oxford University Press’s Blog analyzing how the LOAC applies to journalist reporting from an armed conflict. In his post, Mr. Sivakumaran correctly points out that unless they are members of the armed forces, journalist are treated as civilians. Therefore, they can not lawfully be the object of attack and must be considered when determining the proportionality of an attack.