The participation of civilians in armed conflicts: A case study of the Russian-Ukrainian war

Abstract

In a common practice since the Middle Ages, women, children, the elderly, unarmed combatants and prisoners of war have been under the aegis of rules guaranteeing their rights to integrity. With the deployment of weapons with a high destructive potential in civil conflicts in the mid-19th century, a new discussion about the protection of groups indirectly involved in the fighting emerged, and a new type of institutionalized legislation was developed, agreed at international level through multilateral conventions. In 1864, as one of the milestones of the new humanitarian legal portfolio, the Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded in Armies on Campaign presented the international sphere with a new code of general application, which proposed equal support for wounded combatants.

DOI:https://doi.org/10.56238/sevenIIImulti2023-218