Legal issues of human shields
Zusammenfassung
The paper focuses on analyzing whether the civilians involved in the hostilities as involuntary
human shields enjoy the same legal protection under the law as voluntary human shields. The
author looks at the differences between voluntary and involuntary human shields and the
aspect of direct and indirect participation in hostilities. The analysis is based upon
International Law and Criminal Law articles and interpretations concerning the notion of
human shields. In addition, multiple cases where the human shields were observed, were also
examined to understand the court practice on how the court deals with the law breaches in
contemporary armed conflicts.