Human shield is a military term describing the use of civilians to deter an enemy from attacking certain targets—in particular military targets. In recent times civilian volunteers attempted to use it as an anti-war strategy. International law considers the use of human shields to protect targets a war crime. The Fourth Geneva Convention forbids the use of any civilian as a shield: "The presence of a protected person may not be used to render certain points or areas immune from military operations." (Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, August 12, 1949, 6 U.S.T. 3516, 75 U.N.T.S. 287, art. 28)

It may also be used to describe the use of civilians to literally shield combatants during attacks, by forcing the civilians to march in front of the soldiers during human wave attacks. Using this technique increases the civilian casualty rate and is highly illegal.

In some instances, this tactics has been utilized by the Nazis and by the Soviet Union during World War II. Israeli forces are also reported to have used this tactic, notably during the battle in Jenin refugee camp in April 2002. Palestinian militia groups have been reported as using civilians as human shield, many of whom were children and teenagers. Pictures from the Gaza Strip have documented incident of Hamas and Popular Resistance Committees using children as human shield, to prevent the IDF from firing over gunmen and Qassam rockets. [1]

The tactic was used by the Bosnian Serbs in 1994 and by Iraq in 1990. Some anti-war activists have voluntarily gone to target areas for this purpose, as in 2003 to Iraq, in advance of the 2003 Invasion of Iraq.

Rachel Corrie and Thomas Hurndall, Western International Solidarity Movement volunteers in the Palestinian territories, were killed in March 2003 and April 2003 while trying to disrupt IDF demolition operations by armoured bulldozers. Some ISM volunteers object to the use of the term human shield to describe their work.

The term human shield can also be used collectively where the shield is not an individual but the whole population. In this case, one party in a conflict intentionally positions its military assets amongst a civilian population or close to civilian facilities such as hospitals or schools in the hope that the other party will be reluctant to attack them. Furthermore, if the other party attacks these targets anyway, the resulting civilian casualties have propaganda value. In the case of popular resistance movements, which always operate amongst the civilian populations from which they arise, application of the phrase "human shield" is usually restricted to partisan polemics.

See also

• Civilian casualties
• MOUT - Mission on Urban Terrain
• CQB - Close Quarter Battles
• Human shield action to Iraq

External links

• Truth Justice Peace Human Shields - Iraq 2003
• Rachel Corrie
• Thomas Hurndall
• Civilian Shield in Gaza