Civil Defence in International Humanitarian Law

Who carries out
civil defence tasks?
The provisions of Protocol I cover the
civil defence organizations set up by
the State, their personnel and any
civilians called upon by the State to
carry out civil defence tasks under its
control. Those individuals are
protected to the extend that they are
assigned exclusively to one of the
above-mentioned "humanitarian
tasks", even if only temporarily.
Protocol I also protects the personnel
of civilian civil defence organizations
of neutral or other States not engaged
in the conflict who perform civil
defence tasks on the territory of a
warring party with the latter's consent
and under its control. It provides this
protection on condition that all the
adverse parties concerned are
notified of this fact (Art.
64). The
same applies to international
o r g a n i z a t i o n s , s u c h a s t h e
I n t e r n a t i o n a l C i v i l d e f e n c e
Organization (ICDO), that coordinate
the civil defence work of the above-
mentioned organizations.
Members of the armed forces and
military units may also carry out civil
defence tasks. However, they are
protected only if they are permanently
and exclusively assigned to those
tasks and if they meet the
requirements set out below.
How are civilian civil defence
personnel protected?
General protection
Civilians engaged in civil defence
work must be respected and
protected. They are entitled to carry
out the civil defence tasks except in
case of imperative military necessity
(Art.
62, para.
1). This supplements
the general protection of the civilian
population provided by Article 51 of
Protocol I, under which civilians may
not be the object of attack.
International Committee of the Red Cross

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Buildings and matériel used for civil
defence purposes and shelters
provided for the civilian population
may not be destroyed or diverted from
their proper use except by the State to
which they belong (Art.
62, para.
3).
This protection supplements the
general protection of civilian objects
provided by Article
52 of Protocol
I.
Special protection in occupied territory
Protocol I contains provisions that
supplement, in occupied territory, the
general protection set out above.
These provisions also complete
Article
63 of the Fourth Geneva
Convention.
Under Article
63 of Protocol
I, civilian
civil defence organizations must
receive from the authorities the
f a c i l i t i e s n e c e s s a r y f o r t h e
performance of their tasks, and their
p e r s o n n e l m u s t u n d e r n o
circumstances be compelled to
perform activities that would interfere
with these tasks. However, the
authorities may disarm civil defence
personnel for security reasons.
Limits to protection
The protection to which civilian civil
d e f e n c e o r g a n i z a t i o n s , t h e i r
personnel, buildings, matériel and the
shelters are entitled ceases if they
commit or are used to commit acts
harmful to the enemy (Art.
65).
In order to prevent undue advantage
being taken of this provision, Protocol
I lists acts which may not be viewed
as harmful to the enemy:


the fact that civil defence tasks
are carried out under the
direction or control of military
authorities;

 
the fact that civilian civil defence
personnel cooperate with military
personnel in the performance of
civil defence tasks, or that some
military personnel are attached to
c i v i l i a n c i v i l d e f e n c e
organizations;


the fact that the performance of
c i v i l d e f e n c e t a s k s m a y
incidentally benefit military
victims, particularly those who are
no longer taking part in the
fighting;

 
the fact that civilian civil defence
personnel carry light individual
weapons for the purpose of
maintaining order or for self-
defence.