hors de combat

Hors de Combat, literally meaning "outside the fight," is a French term used in diplomacy and international law to refer to soldiers who are incapable of performing their military function. Examples include a downed fighter pilot, as well as the sick, wounded, detained, or otherwise disabled. Soldiers hors de combat are normally granted special protections according to the laws of war, sometimes including prisoner of war status.

Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions defines^[1]:

A person is 'hors de combat' if:

(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.

Baroness Orczy wrote in her famous novel The Scarlet Pimpernel saying, "When we find them, there will be a band of desperate men at the bay. Some of our men, I presume, will be put hors de combat. These royalists are good swordsmen, and the Englishman is devilish cunning, and looks very powerful."

Kurt Vonnegut described himself as hors de combat on the title page of his famous anti-war novel, Slaughterhouse Five: "... who, as an American infantry scout hors de combat, as a prisoner of war, witnessed the fire bombing of Dresden ..."

Jules Verne, in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, has Captain Nemo explain, "Professor, I am sorry for one of the best vessels in the American navy; but they attacked me, and I was bound to defend myself. I contented myself, however, with putting the frigate hors de combat; she will not have any difficulty in getting repaired at the next port."

See also

• Combatant
• Non-combatant
• Unlawful combatant

References

1. ^ "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". International Humanitarian Law. International Committee of the Red Cross. 

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