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War Hazards Compensation for Civilians
Hathaway, Oona Donilon, Sarah Squires, Carter
Hathaway, Oona
Donilon, Sarah
Squires, Carter
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Abstract
Civilians around the world are increasingly under attack. Tens of thousands of civilians have been killed in recent years in wars in Gaza, Lebanon, Ukraine, and Sudan, and Iran. In recent decades, more than 400,000 civilians died as a direct result of the post-9/11 wars waged by the United States and its allies in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen. And the danger is rising: civilian deaths in conflict surged forty percent globally in 2024, according to the United Nations. What do states owe the innocent civilians they kill in war? In many cases, international law answers: nothing at all. States must compensate civilians for harm resulting from unlawful acts, but not from lawful ones. And even when a state has acted unlawfully, civilians often do not receive compensation. Domestic systems for providing civilian compensation in war, including the United States', are inconsistent, incomplete, and arbitrary. This means that civilians who are injured or lose loved ones or property are nearly always left to pick up the pieces on their own. This Article proposes a novel approach: War Hazards Compensation for Civilians. The plan would be patterned on a U.S. World War II-- era war hazards compensation program for another group of civilians in conflict: private military contractors. For eighty years, the U.S. Congress has required employers or the government to provide workers' compensation for harm to civilian contractors, including death and injury, caused by war risk hazards. By providing such compensation to any civilian harmed by their military operations, states can offer some measure of solace and support. Creating such a plan also renders visible the often-invisible harm done to civilians -- and thus makes plain the true costs of war.