Sweden
Practice Relating to Rule 6. Civilians’ Loss of Protection from Attack
Sweden’s IHL Manual (1991) states: “Protection for civilians does not apply under all circumstances – exceptions are made for the time when civilians take direct part in hostilities, which is equivalent to their taking part in armed fighting.”
Sweden’s IHL Manual (1991) states:
The presence of individual combatants, for example among gatherings of people, has sometimes entailed a belligerent considering himself entitled to launch an attack on the gathering, with particularly serious consequences. It is therefore laid down in Article 50 [of the 1977 Additional Protocol I] that the presence of individual combatants within the civilian population may not deprive this population of its civilian character and thus its protection.
Sweden’s IHL Manual (1991) states: “Where there is doubt whether a person is to be considered as a combatant or as a civilian, the person shall be considered as a civilian.”