Safe conduct, safe passage, or letters of transit, is the situation in time of international conflict or war where one state, a party to such conflict, issues to a person (usually, an enemy state's subject) a pass or document to allow the

enemy alien In customary international law, an enemy alien is any alien native, citizen, denizen or subject of any foreign nation or government with which a domestic nation or government is in conflict and who is liable to be apprehended, restrained, secur ...

to traverse its territory without harassment, bodily harm, or fear of death. Safe conduct is only granted in exceptional circumstances. It may be given to an enemy to allow retreat under surrender terms, or for a meeting to negotiate; to a stateless person; or to somebody who for some reason would normally not be able to pass. A vanquished enemy can also be given, or offered quarter, i.e. be spared, be promised or guaranteed mercy. The term 'safe conduct' is also used to mean the document authorizing this security. In Islamic law, safe conduct or pledge of safety ('' amān'') can be granted to foreigners or

dhimmi ' ( ', , collectively ''/'' "the people of the covenant") or () is a historical term for non-Muslims living in an Islamic state with legal protection. The word literally means "protected person", referring to the state's obligation under ''s ...

residents (''

musta'min Mustaʾmīn or Musta'man () is a historical Islamic term for a non-Muslim foreigner temporarily residing in Muslim lands with ''aman'', or guarantee of short-term safe-conduct ('' aman mu'aqqat''), affording the protected status of dhimmi (non-Mu ...

'') while they travel or reside in Islamic-ruled lands. In the early Middle Ages, during some periods of Islamic control of the

Holy Land The term "Holy Land" is used to collectively denote areas of the Southern Levant that hold great significance in the Abrahamic religions, primarily because of their association with people and events featured in the Bible. It is traditionall ...

, Christian pilgrims could request letters of safe conduct from a Muslim ruler, allowing them to pass through their lands to

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

. An example of safe conduct in the 13^th century was William Wallace's possession of letters of safe conduct, which was granted to him and his army by a number of parties during the

Wars of Scottish Independence The Wars of Scottish Independence were a series of military campaigns fought between the Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England in the late 13th and 14th centuries. The First War (1296–1328) began with the English invasion of Scotla ...

.Barrow, G.W., ''Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland'', EUP (2005), 452 n. 48: Palgrave, Francis, ed.
''Documents and Records illustrating the history of Scotland, and the transactions between the Crowns of Scotland and England'', vol. 1, (1837)
p. cxcv, citing Bishop Stapleton's Kalendar of Treasury documents preserved in London, 1323
Palgrave, Francis, ed., ''Antient Kalendars and Inventories of the Treasury of His Majesty's Exchequer: Bishop Stapleton's calendar'', vol. 2 (1836)
p. 134, item 46. Another example of safe conduct in the 20^th century was

Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...

's " sealed train": a

citizen Citizenship is a membership and allegiance to a sovereign state. Though citizenship is often conflated with nationality in today's English-speaking world, international law does not usually use the term ''citizenship'' to refer to nationality ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

, a country at war with

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, Lenin was permitted to travel from his exile in

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

through Germany, without stopping, to return to Russia. It was in Germany's interest to allow this, for it was hoped that he would destabilize Russia. Another example would be the Chieu Hoi program, during the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

References

Law of war {{International-law-stub