Military objectives and combatants

The basic rule

218. The requirement of distinction between combatants and civilians – as well as between military objectives and civilian objects – is underscored in Article 48 of Additional Protocol I, entitled ‘[b]asic rule’:

In 2005, the Eritrea—Ethiopia Claims Commission found Article 48 to be an expression of customary international law. The basic rule has two parts. One is its protective aspect, granting an exemption from attack to civilians and civilian objects. But no less important is the corresponding exposure to attack of combatants and military objectives.

Military objectives

219. The coinage ‘military objectives’ first came into use in the (non-binding) Hague Rules of Air Warfare. From 1923 on, references to military objectives got gradually absorbed into the texts of binding treaties (see infra 220). Today, ‘the principle of the military objective has become a part of customary international law for armed conflict’ whether on land, at sea or in the air.

220. The phrase ‘military objective’ was used in a peripheral manner in the 1949 Geneva Conventions548 (which failed to define it), as well as the 1954 Hague Cultural Property Convention. It took centre stage in Article 52(2) of Additional Protocol I, which defines it as follows: