THE CLOAK, THE TURBAN, & SLIPPERY SLOPES: THE CLERIC AS A DIRECT PARTICIPANT IN HOSTILITIES AND RIGHT TO PROTECTED STATUS UNDER INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW Adegbite O. B.   Abstract In recent times, the increasing role played by Religious Clerics in most armed conflicts and insurgencies has assumed the front row in International Humanitarian Law discourse. Allegations continue to mount of how Clerics have come to be the dominant force motivating many non-state parties in most hostilities. Given the notoriety that this matter is fast assuming, and the fragile context in which the law appears to operate, State actors now take extreme measures against such Clerics, the type usually reserved for Combatants and which often ends in cases of direct strikes. This paper examines the above malaise within the existing jurisprudence regarding Direct participation in hostilities under International Humanitarian Law, with a view to establishing whether such Clerics can be categorized as Combatants subject to direct attacks and made accountable under the law of war. This paper concludes that notwithstanding the well documented excesses of Clerics in this area, the rule of law demands that the current conservative position under the Interpretive Guidelines should not only be retained but must more importantly be jealously guarded as a more decent path to transnational justice.  LL. B (Hons.) (Ife, Nigeria), LL.M (Ife, Nigeria), LL.M, (Cardozo, Yeshiva University, New York), B.L., Lecturer, Department of Public Law, Faculty of Law, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, NIGERIA. Tel: +234 (0) 8036734396.E-mail:oadegbite@oauife.edu.ng,adegbite@law.cardozo.yu.edu