text: Chapter 2
  decisions during armed conflicts. Commanders and their staffs utilize the risk management process to make
  informed decisions. Commanders should consider risk to mission, resources, and civilians.
  PROTECTION OF CIVILIANS: A SHARED RESPONSIBILITY
  The protection of civilians is a responsibility shared among all belligerents. Parties conducting attacks
  have two duties in particular: First, they must take feasible precautions to reduce the risk of harm to protected
  persons and objects. Second, they must refrain from attacks in which the expected harm to civilians and
  civilian objects would be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage expected to be
  gained (DOD Law of War Manual, 5.11, 5.12, and 5.14; consider AP I, art. 57(2)). Military commanders and
  other officials responsible for the safety of the civilian population have responsibilities as well. They must
  take feasible precautions to reduce the risk of harm to protected persons and objects for which they are
  responsible. Feasible precautions are those precautions that are practicable or practically possible, taking into
  account all circumstances ruling at the time, including humanitarian and military considerations
  (CCW Protocol III art. 1, para. 5).
  Military commanders attacking enemy military objectives must make reasonable efforts to reduce the
  risk of harm to the civilian population when conducting an attack. Military commanders do this by taking
  feasible precautions to reduce risk to protected persons and object. Military commanders must refrain from
  attacks that are disproportionate (where the expected harm to civilians and civilian objects would be excessive
  in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage expected to be gained). Military commanders may
  consider all relevant facts and circumstances, including the risk to forces under their command, the integrity
  of their command, and their mission in weighing the decision to use military force in any situation when
  military forces and civilians are intermingled.
  Military commanders and other officials responsible for the safety of the civilian population must, to
  the extent feasible, separate the civilian population from military objectives to protect the civilian population
  from the effects of combat. Examples of how to do this may include evacuating civilians from known danger
  areas and constructing and using air raid shelters (DOD Law of War manual, 5.14; consider AP I art. 58).
  The civilian population and individual civilians must not be used to shield military objectives or
  operations from attack (DOD Law of War Manual, 5.16; consider AP I art. 51(7)). The party controlling
  civilians and civilian objects has the primary responsibility for the protection of civilians and civilian objects,
  as it has the greater opportunity to minimize risk of harm to civilians. Civilians may also share in the
  responsibility to take precautions for their own protection. Nonetheless, the military commander engaged in
  the attack of that military objective remains obligated to take feasible precautions to reduce the risk of harm
  to protected persons and objects.
  CIVILIANS TAKING A DIRECT PART IN HOSTILITIES
  LOAC does not expressly prohibit civilians from taking a direct part in hostilities, but it does provide
  that civilians who do take a direct part in hostilities forfeit protection from being directly attacked (DOD Law
  of War Manual, 5.8; consider AP I art. 51(3); AP II, art. 13(3)). Civilians who have ceased to take a direct
  part in hostilities may not be made the object of attack, but could still be subject to detention for their previous
  hostile acts. Such civilians generally do not enjoy the combatant’s privilege—that is, they do not have
  combatant immunity, and, if captured, they may be prosecuted for their belligerent acts under the domestic
  law of the capturing State.
  Civilians engaging in belligerent acts not only forfeit their immunity from direct attack, they also make
  it more difficult for military personnel to apply the principle of distinction and thereby can put other civilians
  at greater risk.
  In the context of when civilians may be directly targeted, neither treaty law nor customary international
  law provides a definition of the phrase “direct part in hostilities.” At a minimum, it includes actions that are,
  by their very nature and purpose, intended to cause actual harm to the enemy. Taking a direct part in hostilities
  extends beyond merely engaging in combat and also includes certain acts that are an integral part of combat
  operations or that effectively and substantially contribute to an adversary’s ability to conduct or sustain
  combat operations. Taking a direct part in hostilities, however, does not encompass the general support that