Source: https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/customary-ihl/eng/docs/v2_cou_nz_rule106
Timestamp: 2019-04-18 19:38:38+00:00

Document:
With a view to ensuring protection of the civilian population, combatants are required to distinguish themselves from that population when engaged in an attack or preparing to mount an attack. Under the [Hague Regulations] this distinction depended upon a recognisable emblem and the carrying of arms openly. In the case of a State’s regular forces, the uniform worn by the forces strengthens the distinction.
New Zealand, Interim Law of Armed Conflict Manual, DM 112, New Zealand Defence Force, Headquarters, Directorate of Legal Services, Wellington, November 1992, § 805(3).
Civilians who take up arms on the approach of an enemy to resist the invasion of their State constitute a levée en masse and are regarded as combatants so long as they carry their arms openly and respect the laws and customs of war … They are not entitled to such treatment if they take up arms after their territory has been occupied, unless they are so organised as to constitute a resistance movement.
New Zealand, Interim Law of Armed Conflict Manual, DM 112, New Zealand Defence Force, Headquarters, Directorate of Legal Services, Wellington, November 1992, §§ 803(2) and 806(4).
By Article 44, with a view to ensuring protection of the civilian population, combatants are required to distinguish themselves from that population when engaged in an attack or preparing to mount an attack. Under the [Hague Regulations] this distinction depended upon a recognisable emblem and the carrying of arms openly. In case of State’s regular forces, the uniform worn by the forces strengthens the distinction. Art. 44(3) of the Protocol, however, recognizes that there may be situations when, owing to the nature of the hostilities, an armed combatant cannot distinguish himself from the civilian population, either by recognizable marks or by his arms although he is required to carry his arms openly during an engagement or while visible during deployment prior to an attack.
New Zealand, Interim Law of Armed Conflict Manual, DM 112, New Zealand Defence Force, Headquarters, Directorate of Legal Services, Wellington, November 1992, § 805(3) and (4).
special and exceptional. Many States, including New Zealand in its ratification, have declared that these situations can occur only … during a war of self-determination conducted by a national liberation movement or in occupied territory.
New Zealand, Interim Law of Armed Conflict Manual, DM 112, New Zealand Defence Force, Headquarters, Directorate of Legal Services, Wellington, November 1992, § 805(3), footnote 17.
The text does not indicate whether they must be visible to the naked eye or whether it is sufficient for them to be seen with the aid of instruments. New Zealand’s declaration on ratification provided for the term to include “the assistance of any form of surveillance, electronic or otherwise, available to help keep a member of the armed forces of the adversary under observation.” While this view was shared by a number of Western States at the time of negotiation of [the 1977 Additional Protocol I], few States have made it the subject of an understanding: Australia, indeed, takes the view that visibility without electronic aids is a more appropriate interpretation.
New Zealand, Interim Law of Armed Conflict Manual, DM 112, New Zealand Defence Force, Headquarters, Directorate of Legal Services, Wellington, November 1992, § 805(4), footnote 23.
New Zealand, Interim Law of Armed Conflict Manual, DM 112, New Zealand Defence Force, Headquarters, Directorate of Legal Services, Wellington, November 1992, § 805(4), footnote 24.
It is the understanding of the Government of New Zealand that in relation to Article 44 of Protocol I, the situation described in the second sentence of paragraph 3 can exist only in occupied territory or in armed conflicts covered by paragraph 4 of Article 1. The Government of New Zealand will interpret the word “deployment” in paragraph 3(b) of the Article as meaning any movement towards a place from which an attack is to be launched. It will interpret the words “visible to the adversary” in the same paragraph as including visible with the aid of any form of surveillance, electronic or otherwise, available to help keep a member of the armed forces of the adversary under.
New Zealand, Declarations made upon ratification of the 1977 Additional Protocol I, 8 February 1988, § 1.

References: § 805
 Art. 44
 § 805
 § 805
 § 805
 § 805
 § 1