II.  REQUIREMENTS, LIMITATIONS AND EFFECTS OF THE CONCURRENT APPLICABILITY OF INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LAW AND INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW IN ARMED CONFLICT to civilians, but also an examination of the context in which such harm occurred. In order to examine the legality of a specific attack, international humanitarian law contains three main principles that all parties need to observe at all times to respect civilians and the civilian population: distinction, proportionality and precaution. The principle of distinction requires the parties to a conflict to distinguish at all times between civilians and combatants, and attacks to be directed only against combatants. Parties to the conflict should distinguish themselves from civilians by using distinctive uniforms or other forms of identification. The parties to a conflict must at all times distinguish between civilian objects and military objectives, and attacks may be directed only against military objectives. Indiscriminate attacks, i.e., attacks that do not distinguish between military and non-military objectives, are prohibited. According to the principle of proportionality, launching an attack which may be expected to cause incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects that would be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated is prohibited. With regard to the precautions to be adopted in the conduct of military operations, constant care must be taken to spare civilians and civilian objects in any attack. All feasible precautions must be taken to prevent, or in any event minimize, incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians and damage to civilian objects. Precautionary measures include the obligation to verify that a target is in fact a lawful military objective and also to give advance warning to civilians in the vicinity so they may leave the area. (b) International human rights law The principle of distinction is unknown in international human rights law, while the principles of proportionality and precaution apply also to any use of force in international human rights law, but because there is no distinction between civilians and combatants they have more beneficiaries. 65