Hors de combat


Hors de combat is a French term used in diplomacy and international law to refer to military personnel who are incapable of performing their duties during 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 civilian trial and punishment.
Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions defines:

A person is hors de combat if:
provided that in any of these cases he abstains from any hostile act and does not attempt to escape.

In literature