View source for Hors de combat

{{Italic title|reason=.}}{{Short description|Soldiers unable to fight}}
{{Use mdy dates|date = March 2019}}
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'''''Hors de combat''''' ({{IPA|fr|ɔʁ də kɔ̃ba|lang}}; {{lit.|out of combat}}) is a [[List of English words of French origin|French term]] used in the [[law of war|laws of war]] to refer to persons who are incapable of performing their [[combat]] duties during [[war]], thus generally not treated as active [[combatant]]s but rather [[Protected persons|protected person]]s. Examples include [[Attacks on parachutists|persons parachuting from their disabled aircraft]], shipwreck survivors, as well as the sick, wounded, detained, or otherwise disabled. Intentional hostility from assumed ''hors de combat'' persons removes any legal protection on their part and renders them as active combatants once again.

Under the [[Geneva Conventions|1949 Geneva Conventions]], [[enemy combatant]]s ''hors de combat'' are [[non-combatant]]s and automatically granted the status of [[protected persons]]. Lawful [[combatant]]s ''hors de combat'' receive [[prisoner of war]] (POW) status and cannot be prosecuted for simply partaking in hostilities. [[Unlawful combatant]]s ''hors de combat'' do not receive the same privilege and are subject to trial and punishment (which may include [[capital punishment]] if the detaining power has such a punishment for the crimes they have committed).

[[Protocol I]] to the Geneva Conventions defines a person as ''hors de combat'' if:<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/WebART/470-750050?OpenDocument |work=International Humanitarian Law|title=Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I), 8 June 1977, Part III : Methods and means of warfare – Combatant and prisoner-of-war status #Section I – Methods and means of warfare, Article 41 – Safeguard of an enemy hors de combat, Paragraph 2|publisher=International Committee of the Red Cross|access-date=2009-11-23}}</ref>
<blockquote>
: (a) he is in the power of an adverse Party;
: (b) he clearly expresses an intention to surrender; or
: (c) he has been rendered unconscious or is otherwise incapacitated by wounds or sickness, and therefore is incapable of defending himself;
provided that in any of these cases he abstains from any hostile act and does not attempt to escape.
</blockquote>

==References==
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hors De Combat}}
[[Category:International humanitarian law]]
[[Category:French words and phrases]]

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