Protecting non-combatant civilians during war

摘要

In the course of civilian life, when one person kills another, it is usually considered 'murder', and when someone kills many people, it is usually termed 'mass murder'. In contrast, in the course of war, when military forces accidentally kill many non-combatant civilians, it is often considered 'collateral damage', and when they purposefully kill many non-combatant civilians, it may actually be achieving a strategic objective of war. In fact, the goal of war - 'Do harm' — is anathema to medicine, public health and human rights. This year marks three anniversaries related to the mass killing of civilians during war. It is the centennial of the first use of aerial bombing of civilian populations, which caused massive civilian casualties in London during the First World War. It is the seventieth anniversary of the detonation of atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which killed more than 200,000 people. And it is the 40th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, during which at least 1.2 million civilians died.