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Although the GC addresses the protection of civilians, protected persons may includecertain unprivileged belligerents. Certain rights and privileges that protected persons who areunprivileged belligerents receive, however, are subject to derogation for security reasons. 2710.3.2 Persons Who Receive Protected Person Status Under the GC. Subject to certainexceptions addressed below, persons protected by the GC are those who, at a given moment andin any manner whatsoever, find themselves, in case of a conflict or occupation, in the hands of aparty to the conflict or Occupying Power of which they are not nationals. 28Because the definition of protected person is framed negatively in terms of persons whoare in the hands of a State of which they are not nationals, the definition of protected personallows for the possibility that persons without any nationality may be protected persons. 2910.3.2.1 “Find Themselves”. The persons must “find themselves” in the hands ofa party to the conflict or Occupying Power, which suggests an element of happenstance orcoincidence. 30 For example, nationals of a neutral or non-belligerent State who travel to anoccupied State to fight the Occupying Power cannot be said to have “found themselves” withinthat occupied territory within the meaning of Article 4 of the GC.10.3.2.2 In Occupied Territory or the Home Territory of a Party to the Conflict.To be entitled to the protections provided under the GC for “protected persons,” a person mustbe located in either (1) occupied territory or (2) the home territory of a party to the conflict. 3127 Refer to § 10.4 (Derogation for Security Reasons).28 GC art. 4 (“Persons protected by the Convention are those who, at a given moment and in any manner whatsoever,find themselves, in case of a conflict or occupation, in the hands of a Party to the conflict or Occupying Power ofwhich they are not nationals.”).29 GC COMMENTARY 47 (“It will be observed that owing to its negative form the definition covers persons withoutany nationality. The Rapporteur to Committee III pointed out that it thus complied with the recommendation madeto the Diplomatic Conference by the representative of the International Refugee Organization. In the actual courseof the discussions, however, certain speakers observed that the term ‘nationals’ (ressortissants, in the Frenchversion) did not cover all cases, in particular cases where men and women had fled from their homeland and nolonger considered themselves, or were no longer considered, to be nationals of that country. Such cases exist, it istrue, but it will be for the Power in whose hands they are to decide whether the persons concerned should or shouldnot be regarded as citizens of the country from which they have fled. The problem presents so many varied aspectsthat it was difficult to deal with it fully in the Convention.”).30 Jack L. Goldsmith III, Assistant Attorney General, “Protected Person” Status in Occupied Iraq Under the FourthGeneva Convention, Mar. 18, 2004, 28 OPINIONS OF THE OFFICE OF LEGAL COUNSEL 35, 51 (“Alternatively, thephrase “find themselves” [in Article 4 of the GC] can be read more narrowly to suggest an element of happenstanceor coincidence, and to connote a lack of deliberate action relating to the circumstances that leave the persons inquestion in the hands of an occupying power.”).31 See Jack L. Goldsmith III, Assistant Attorney General, “Protected Person” Status in Occupied Iraq Under theFourth Geneva Convention, Mar. 18, 2004, 28 OPINIONS OF THE OFFICE OF LEGAL COUNSEL 35, 41 (“To receive theprotections provided for ‘protected persons,’ one must be located in either (1) ‘occupied territory,’ or (2) the‘territory of a party to the conflict.’ This limitation does not emerge from article 4 itself, but rather from otherprovisions in GC.”); GC COMMENTARY 46 (“Nevertheless, disregarding points of detail, it will be seen that there aretwo main classes of protected person: (1) enemy nationals within the national territory of each of the Parties to theconflict and (2) the whole population of occupied territories (excluding nationals of the Occupying Power). Theother distinctions and, exceptions extend or restrict these limits, but not to any appreciable extent.”).649