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Indiscriminate attack
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Indiscriminate attack
In international humanitarian law, an indiscriminate attack is a military attack that fails to distinguish between legitimate military targets and protected persons. Indiscriminate attacks strike both legitimate military and protected objects alike, thus violating the principle of distinction between combatants and protected civilians. They differ from direct (or deliberate) attacks against protected civilians and encompass cases in which the perpetrators are indifferent as to the nature of the target, cases in which the perpetrators use tactics or weapons that are inherently indiscriminate (e.g., cluster munitions, anti-personnel mines, and nuclear weapons), and cases in which the attack is disproportionate, because it is likely to cause excessive protected civilian casualties and damages to protected objects.
Indiscriminate attacks are prohibited both by the Geneva Conventions Additional Protocol I (1977) and by customary international humanitarian law. They constitute a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, and the perpetrators can be prosecuted and held responsible in international and domestic courts.
Indiscriminate attacks are military attacks that neglect the distinction between legitimate military targets, on the one side, and persons and objects that enjoy protection under international humanitarian law, on the other. (See protected persons for more information.)
Protected objects include civilians and civilian objects that do not make an effective contribution to military action and whose destruction does not offer a definite military advantage. Protected objects under international humanitarian law include also objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, cultural objects and places of worship, undefended towns, villages, dwellings, or building, works and installations containing dangerous forces, such as nuclear plants, dams and dikes, and the natural environment, which should not be exposed to widespread, long-term, and severe damage.
Indiscriminate attacks strike military objects and protected objects alike, thus violating the principle of distinction between combatants and protected civilians. Contrary to direct attacks against civilian objects, where the attacker is deliberately trying to hit a civilian object (e.g. to spread terror and break the morale of the population), indiscriminate attacks imply that the attacker is indifferent as to whether the targets are military or not and conducts the operation without regard for any effect it may have on the civilians. Essential to the notion of indiscriminate attack is the state of mind of the attacker, which must be assessed taking into account the so-called fog of war, that is, that the information available at the time of the attack might have been faulty or incomplete.
The notion of indiscriminate attack is defined in Article 51 Geneva Conventions Additional Protocol I (1977). Indiscriminate attacks are engaged in by employing either tactics or weapons that are indiscriminate, and by launching attacks that are disproportionate.
Examples of the first kind include releasing bombs over enemy territory in the hope of incidentally striking a military objective, firing blindly without ensuring that the target is of military nature, conducting air strikes in situations of limited sight, launching an attack with imprecise weapons against a military objective that is closely surrounded by civilian objects, and using inherently indiscriminate weapons such as cluster munitions and anti-personnel landmines without taking necessary precautions. Also the use of nuclear weapons, while not being as such prohibited under current customary international law, will usually violate the ban on indiscriminate attacks.
Indiscriminate attacks also include attacks that violate the proportionality rule: the so-called disproportionate attacks. Until the adoption of Protocol I, once an attack was aimed at a military objective, any inevitable harm caused to protected civilians and civilian objects during hostilities was accepted as "collateral damage". Under current international humanitarian law, however, attacks against a legitimate military objective that lead to collateral damages are subject to the principle of proportionality: losses to the civilian population and damage to civilian objects must not be "excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated" from the attack, as stated in Article 51 Protocol I. This basic principle is expressed also in Article 57.
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Indiscriminate attack
In international humanitarian law, an indiscriminate attack is a military attack that fails to distinguish between legitimate military targets and protected persons. Indiscriminate attacks strike both legitimate military and protected objects alike, thus violating the principle of distinction between combatants and protected civilians. They differ from direct (or deliberate) attacks against protected civilians and encompass cases in which the perpetrators are indifferent as to the nature of the target, cases in which the perpetrators use tactics or weapons that are inherently indiscriminate (e.g., cluster munitions, anti-personnel mines, and nuclear weapons), and cases in which the attack is disproportionate, because it is likely to cause excessive protected civilian casualties and damages to protected objects.
Indiscriminate attacks are prohibited both by the Geneva Conventions Additional Protocol I (1977) and by customary international humanitarian law. They constitute a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, and the perpetrators can be prosecuted and held responsible in international and domestic courts.
Indiscriminate attacks are military attacks that neglect the distinction between legitimate military targets, on the one side, and persons and objects that enjoy protection under international humanitarian law, on the other. (See protected persons for more information.)
Protected objects include civilians and civilian objects that do not make an effective contribution to military action and whose destruction does not offer a definite military advantage. Protected objects under international humanitarian law include also objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, cultural objects and places of worship, undefended towns, villages, dwellings, or building, works and installations containing dangerous forces, such as nuclear plants, dams and dikes, and the natural environment, which should not be exposed to widespread, long-term, and severe damage.
Indiscriminate attacks strike military objects and protected objects alike, thus violating the principle of distinction between combatants and protected civilians. Contrary to direct attacks against civilian objects, where the attacker is deliberately trying to hit a civilian object (e.g. to spread terror and break the morale of the population), indiscriminate attacks imply that the attacker is indifferent as to whether the targets are military or not and conducts the operation without regard for any effect it may have on the civilians. Essential to the notion of indiscriminate attack is the state of mind of the attacker, which must be assessed taking into account the so-called fog of war, that is, that the information available at the time of the attack might have been faulty or incomplete.
The notion of indiscriminate attack is defined in Article 51 Geneva Conventions Additional Protocol I (1977). Indiscriminate attacks are engaged in by employing either tactics or weapons that are indiscriminate, and by launching attacks that are disproportionate.
Examples of the first kind include releasing bombs over enemy territory in the hope of incidentally striking a military objective, firing blindly without ensuring that the target is of military nature, conducting air strikes in situations of limited sight, launching an attack with imprecise weapons against a military objective that is closely surrounded by civilian objects, and using inherently indiscriminate weapons such as cluster munitions and anti-personnel landmines without taking necessary precautions. Also the use of nuclear weapons, while not being as such prohibited under current customary international law, will usually violate the ban on indiscriminate attacks.
Indiscriminate attacks also include attacks that violate the proportionality rule: the so-called disproportionate attacks. Until the adoption of Protocol I, once an attack was aimed at a military objective, any inevitable harm caused to protected civilians and civilian objects during hostilities was accepted as "collateral damage". Under current international humanitarian law, however, attacks against a legitimate military objective that lead to collateral damages are subject to the principle of proportionality: losses to the civilian population and damage to civilian objects must not be "excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated" from the attack, as stated in Article 51 Protocol I. This basic principle is expressed also in Article 57.