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Answer» What is Human Shield mean? A human shield is a non-combatant (or a group of non-combatants) who either volunteers or is forced to shield a legitimate military target in order to deter the enemy from attacking it. The use of human shields as a resistance measure was popularized by Mahatma Gandhi as a weapon of peace. On the other hand, the weaponization of civilians has also developed as a tactic by some non-state actors like ISIS. The claim that people are being used as human shields is frequently invoked by many countries to exonerate their military forces from blame when schools, hospitals and other institutions are targeted for bombing, causing notable casualties among the civilian population. These claims assert that the adversaries in question deliberately deploy arms near civilians in order to protect their military personnel and installations. Forcing non-combatants to serve as human shields is a war crime according to the 1949 Geneva Conventions, the 1977 Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions, and the 1998 Rome Statute. reference
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