Are "Unprivileged Belligerents" Protected by the Civilians Convention and, If so, How?

This chapter discusses the personal scope of application of the Fourth Geneva Convention (GC IV). It focuses particularly on the protection of so-called unprivileged belligerents, persons who directly participate in hostilities against the adversary in an international armed conflict without entitlement to combatant and therefore prisoner of war status upon capture. The main relevant article of GC IV examined is Article 4. The chapter starts by analyzing Article 4 in its context. It then searches for relevant elements in the travaux préparatoires of GCs IV and III to interpret the personal scope of GC IV. Having concluded that these support an interpretation that excludes civilians in non-occupied territory of their home State from certain protections, it looks at what remaining protections exist and discusses an approach that has been suggested to broaden the scope of application of GC IV. The chapter concludes with some final remarks.