What is "hors de combat"

Hors de combat \Hors` de com`bat"\ [F.] Out of the combat; disabled from fighting; out of action.

1757, French, literally "out of combat."

a. (context literary English) out of action; disabled; no longer able to fight

adj. so badly injured as to be unable to continue; "disabled veterans" [syn: disabled, out of action]

Hors de combat, literally meaning "outside the fight", is a French term used in diplomacy and international law to refer to persons who are incapable of performing their ability to wage war. Examples include fighter pilots or aircrews parachuting from their disabled aircraft, as well as the sick, wounded, detained, or otherwise disabled. Persons hors de combat are normally granted special protections according to the laws of war, sometimes including prisoner-of-war status, and therefore officially become non-combatants. Under the 1949 Geneva Conventions, unlawful combatants hors de combat are granted the same privilege and to be treated with humanity while in captivity but unlike lawful combatants, they are subject to trial and punishment, which includes capital punishment.

Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions defines:

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.