Editing Civilian (section)

==Civilians in modern conflicts==
{{See also|Civilian casualties|Civilian casualty ratio}}
The actual position of the civilian in modern war remains problematic.<ref>[[Hugo Slim]], ''Killing Civilians: Method, Madness and Morality in War'', Hurst, London, 2008.</ref> It is complicated by a number of phenomena, including:
* the fact that many modern wars are essentially [[civil war]]s, in which the application of the laws of war is often difficult, and in which the distinction between combatants and civilians is particularly hard to maintain;
* [[guerrilla warfare]] and [[terrorism]], both of which tend to involve combatants assuming the appearance of civilians;
* the growth of doctrines of "effects-based war", under which there is less focus on attacking enemy combatants than on undermining the enemy regime's sources of power, which may include apparently civilian objects such as electrical power stations; 
* the use of "[[lawfare]]", a term that refers to attempts to discredit the enemy by making its forces appear to be in violation of the laws of war, for example by attacking civilians who had been deliberately used as [[human shield]]s; 
* the term becomes ambiguous in societies that use widespread [[conscription]], or otherwise "militarized societies," in which most adults have military training. This has been discussed with reference to the [[Israeli–Palestinian conflict]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Slim |first1=Hugo |title=Why Protect Civilians? Innocence, Immunity, and Enmity in War |journal=International Affairs |date=2003 |volume=79 |issue=3 |pages=481–501|doi=10.1111/1468-2346.00318 }}</ref>

Starting in the 1980s, it was often claimed that 90 percent of the victims of modern wars were civilians.<ref>Kahnert, M., D. Pitt, et al., Eds. (1983). ''Children and War: Proceedings of Symposium at Siuntio Baths, Finland, 1983.'' Geneva and Helsinki, Geneva International Peace Research Institute, IPB and Peace Union of Finland, p. 5, which states: "Of the human victims in the First World War only 5% were civilians, in the Second World War already 50%, in Vietnam War between 50 - 90% and according to some information in Lebanon 97%. It has been appraised that in a conventional war in Europe up to 99% of the victims would be civilians."</ref><ref>[[Graça Machel]], [http://www.unicef.org/graca/a51-306_en.pdf ''Impact of Armed Conflict on Children'',  Report of the expert of the Secretary-General, 26 Aug 1996, p. 9.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090723152322/http://www.unicef.org/graca/a51-306_en.pdf |date=2009-07-23 }}</ref><ref>[[Mary Kaldor]], [https://books.google.com/books?id=XVgVstFi0XUC&q=90+per+cent ''New and Old Wars: Organized Violence in a Global Era'', Polity Press, Cambridge, 1999, p. 107.]</ref><ref>[[Howard Zinn]], Moises Samam, Gino Strada. ''Just war'', Charta, 2005, p. 38.</ref> These claims, though widely believed, are not supported by detailed examination of the evidence, particularly that relating to wars (such as those in [[Yugoslav Wars|former Yugoslavia]] and in [[War in Afghanistan (2001–present)|Afghanistan]]) that are central to the claims.<ref>[[Adam Roberts (scholar)|Adam Roberts]], [http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00396338.2010.494880 "Lives and Statistics: Are 90% of War Victims Civilians?", ''Survival'', London, vol. 52, no. 3, June–July 2010, pp. 115–35.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170205010559/http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00396338.2010.494880 |date=2017-02-05 }} Print edition ISSN 0039-6338. Online ISSN 1468-2699.</ref>

[[File:Wounded civilians arrive at hospital Aleppo.jpg|thumb|Wounded civilians arrive at a hospital in [[Aleppo]] during the [[Syrian civil war]], October 2012]]
In the opening years of the 21st century, despite the many problems associated with it, the legal category of the civilian has been the subject of considerable attention in public discourse, in the media and at the United Nations, and in justification of certain uses of armed force to protect endangered populations. It has "lost none of its political, legal and moral salience."<ref>[[Adam Roberts (scholar)|Adam Roberts]], "The Civilian in Modern War", ''Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law'', vol. 12, T.M.C. Asser Press, The Hague, 2010, pp. 13–51. {{ISBN|978-90-6704-335-9}}; ISSN 1389-1359. One part of this article, relating to casualties, also appeared in ''Survival'', June–July 2010, as footnoted above.</ref>

Although it is often assumed that civilians are essentially passive onlookers of war, sometimes they have active roles in conflicts. These may be quasi-military, as when in November 1975 the Moroccan government organized the "[[green march]]" of civilians to cross the border into the former Spanish colony of [[Western Sahara]] to claim the territory for Morocco - all at the same time as Moroccan forces entered the territory clandestinely.<ref>Ian Brownlie, ''African Boundaries: A Legal and Diplomatic Encyclopaedia'', C. Hurst, London, for Royal Institute of International Affairs, pp. 149-59 gives a useful account of the background and origin of the dispute over Western Sahara.</ref> In addition, and without necessarily calling into question their status as non-combatants, civilians sometimes take part in campaigns of [[civil resistance|nonviolent civil resistance]] as a means of opposing dictatorial rule or foreign occupation: sometimes such campaigns happen at the same time as armed conflicts or guerrilla insurrections, but they are usually distinct from them as regards both their organization and participation.<ref>See for example the chapters on the anti-Marcos movement in the Philippines (by Amado Mendoza) and on resistance against apartheid in South Africa (by Tom Lodge) in [[Adam Roberts (scholar)|Adam Roberts]] and [[Timothy Garton Ash]] (eds.), ''Civil Resistance and Power Politics: The Experience of Non-violent Action from Gandhi to the Present'', Oxford University Press, 2009 [https://books.google.com/books?id=BxOQKrCe7UUC&q=Civil+resistance+and+power+politics], pp. 179-96 and 213-30.</ref>

Officials directly involved in the maiming of civilians are conducting offensive combat operations and do not qualify as civilians.