Indiscriminate attack
In international humanitarian law and international criminal law, an indiscriminate attack is a military attack that fails to distinguish between legitimate military targets and protected persons. Indiscriminate attacks strike both legitimate military and protected objects alike, thus violating the principle of distinction between combatants and protected civilians. They differ from direct (or deliberate) attacks against protected civilians and encompass cases in which the perpetrators are indifferent as to the nature of the target, cases in which the perpetrators use tactics or weapons that are inherently indiscriminate (e.g., cluster munitions, anti-personnel mines, nuclear weapons), and cases in which the attack is disproportionate, because it is likely to cause excessive protected civilian casualties and damages to protected objects.
Indiscriminate attacks are prohibited both by the Geneva Conventions Additional Protocol I (1977) and by customary international humanitarian law. They constitute a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, and the perpetrators can be prosecuted and held responsible in international and domestic courts.
Legal status in international and national law[edit]
The prohibition of indiscriminate attacks is set forth in Article 51(4) and (5) of Additional Protocol I[note 2] and is generally considered a norm of customary international humanitarian law.[17][18] While Protocol I is applicable only in international armed conflict and only to the signatory states of that international treaty, the prohibition of indiscriminate attacks as a rule of customary international humanitarian law is applicable in both international and non-international armed conflicts (civil wars)[12][19][20] and is also applicable to states that are not party to Additional Protocol I, such as India and the United States.[18] The prohibition of indiscriminate attacks can also be construed as a necessary consequence of the principle of distinction between combatants and civilians.[21] The principle of distinction belongs to customary international humanitarian law and justifies a number of analogous rules including prohibitions or limitations on starvation, sieges, and reprisals against civilians, civilian objects, and other protected persons and objects.[15]
The prohibition of indiscriminate attacks is established in numerous national military manuals as well as supported by official statements and reported practice; to carry out such attacks is a criminal offense under the legislation of several countries[18]
Indiscriminate attacks in international armed conflicts are also defined and punished as a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.[note 4]