History UsefulNotes / TheLawsAndCustomsOfWar

* Pretending to be UN forces, members of the Red Cross[=/=]Red Crescent, or other international organisations. Note that if the UN is running a military operation (e.g. UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar), you're allowed to use their logo on your tank... it's when the UN doesn't give you permission and you use it that you're running afoul of Article 38.

The different treaties that make up the laws of war also prescribe symbols to denote people, places or things that are not legitimate targets in time of war. The best known of these is the Red Cross, Red Crescent, and Red Crystal symbols that are jointly protected by the Geneva Conventions and the International Committees of the Red Cross. The symbol in wartime is used to mark medics and medical vehicles and facilities that are officially noncombatant and illegal to fire at. Unfortunately, not all combatant forces have heeded the laws, and medics have been forced during some conflicts to remove the red cross from their uniforms as all it did was present a better target and [[ShootTheMedicFirst point out the medic]]. Field hospitals and military medical facilities also use the symbol, which is why it is legitimately used all over the TV series ''Series/{{Mash}}'', as it is set at an Army hospital during wartime. However, most uses of the symbol in fiction, such as on medkits (and in real life[[note]]at least for any entity not Johnson and Johnson, whose trademark registration of the symbol predates the Geneva Conventions and so they are allowed to use the Red Cross symbol via the GrandfatherClause, a privilege upheld in court as recently as the past two decades[[/note]]) get a quick and stern rebuke from either the ICRC or the Geneva Commission, as they fear dilution of the symbol into becoming just a generic medical symbol, losing the specific meaning of "this person, place or thing is not legal to fire upon". Go to TheColoredCross for more information.

Realizing that the people it fights have frequently not adhered to Geneva (as seen in UsefulNotes/WorldWarTwo, the UsefulNotes/VietnamWar and every other conflict since 1941), the United States military, plus others, trains its aircrew (along with others particularly likely to end up behind enemy lines, such as [[ElitesAreMoreGlamorous special forces]]) in torture resistance techniques, including "waterboarding" them.

A ship is allowed to fly the flags of an opposing or neutral nation (although protected symbols are banned) as it approaches an enemy vessel or the coast. However, before it engages the enemy, it has to lower the colours it is flying and reveal its true colours. Witness the [[AWolfInSheepsClothing Q-Ships]] of UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne and UsefulNotes/WorldWarTwo, converted merchant ships loaded with [[NighInvulnerable things which float like cork, balsa]] and [[{{Irony}} wooden coffins]] to render them nearly unsinkable--and also large artillery hidden by drop-down panels. When an enemy submarine approached to close range and surfaced to attack with a deck gun, the colors were raised, and the panels were dropped.

* Note that the last two are only illegal if you're going to ''attack''. Doing these in order to desert or to escape the battlefield are not illegal (but your own side will, of course, shoot you--presumably after a trial, we hope--if they catch you deserting).

Non-combatants are persons who are not or cease taking part in armed hostilities. In the context of international armed conflicts, they are referred to as “protected persons” under the Geneva Conventions, but they benefit from minimum protection in non-international armed conflicts as well. Deliberately wounding or killing '''non-combatants''' is a war crime. That includes civilians, medics and chaplains, and enemy fighters who are [[KickThemWhileTheyAreDown hors de combat]] ("outside the fight," i.e. incapable of fighting), such as those who have surrendered, are [[SinkTheLifeBoats leaving damaged vehicles]] (except tank crews leaving damaged tanks, infantry troops leaving damaged boats near or close to shore, or airborne forces leaving damaged planes), are wounded and sick, or became shipwrecked, constitute war crimes.

[[ColdBloodedTorture Torture]] is prohibited under international humanitarian law, including the Hague Convention of 1907 and 1949 Geneva Conventions. The Hague Convention of 1907 and the 1949 Geneva Conventions prohibit the torture of anyone under physical control or custody of a belligerent party. Under the original Geneva Conventions, there are protections only for lawful combatants and non-combatants, not "unlawful combatants".

Article 75 of the First Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions (1977) contains a prohibition of torture as one of the basic minimum protections applicable to everyone, even if they are eligible for protection under none of the other Geneva Conventions. The "legitimate" in the header above refers to the fact that under the original Geneva Conventions, there are protections only for lawful combatants and [[WouldNotShootACivilian noncombatants]], not "unlawful combatants". In other words, torturing unlawful combatants (along with anyone and everyone else) is a war crime.