ISBN 2-88145-115-2 © International Committee of the Red Cross, Frits Kalshoven and Liesbeth Zegveld, Geneva, March 2001 3rd edition Frits Kalshoven and Liesbeth Zegveld CONSTRAINTS ON THE WAGING OF WAR An Introduction to International Humanitarian Law 19, Avenue de la Paix, CH-1202 Geneva T +41 22 734 60 01 F +41 22 733 20 57 E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.icrc.org Design: Strategic Communications SA Original: English March 2001 Produced with environment-friendly materials I must retrace my steps, and must deprive those who wage war of nearly all the privileges which I seemed to grant, yet did not grant to them. For when I first set out to explain this part of the law of nations I bore witness that many things are said to be ‘lawful’ or ‘permissible’ for the reason that they are done with impunity, in part also because coactive tribunals lend to them their authority; things which nevertheless, either deviate from the rule of right (whether this has any basis in law strictly so called, or in the admonitions of other virtues), or at any rate may be omitted on higher grounds and with greater praise among good men. Grotius: De jure belli ac pacis Book III, Chapter X, Section I.1. (English translation: Francis G. Kelsey, Oxford, 1925). TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE ........................................................... 7 FOREWORD ........................................................... 9 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION ........................................................ 11 I 1 Object and purpose ............................................... 12 I 2 Custom and treaty ................................................. 15 I 3 Implementation and enforcement ................................. 16 I 4 Structure .......................................................... 17 CHAPTER II THE MAIN CURRENTS: THE HAGUE, GENEVA, NEW YORK ...... 19 II 1 The Hague ........................................................ 19 II 2 Geneva ........................................................... 26 II3 NewYork ......................................................... 29 II 4 Confluence: 1977 and beyond .................................... 32 CHAPTER III THE LAW BEFORE THE PROTOCOLS OF 1977 ...................... 37 III 1 Character of the law ............................................... 37 III 2 Scope of application .............................................. 38 III 3 The Hague ........................................................ 40 3.1 Combatants ............................................... 40 3.2 Means of warfare .......................................... 41 3.3 Methods of warfare ........................................ 44 3.4 Military objectives and protection of the civilian population 44 3.5 Nuclear weapons .......................................... 47 3.6 Cultural property .......................................... 48 III 4 Geneva ........................................................... 51 4.1 Protected persons ......................................... 51 4.2 Principle of protection ..................................... 53 4 CONSTRAINTS ON THE WAGING OF WAR 4.3 First Convention ........................................... 54 4.4 Second Convention ........................................ 56 4.5 Third Convention .......................................... 58 4.6 Fourth Convention ........................................ 61 4.6a General protection of populations against certain consequences of war ............................... 62 4.6b Provisions common to the territory of parties to the conflict and to occupied territory ................................... 63 4.6c Aliens in the territory of a party to the conflict .............. 64 4.6d Occupied territory ......................................... 65 4.6e Internment ................................................. 68 4.6f Information bureaux and Tracing Agency .................. 68 4.7 Common Article 3 ......................................... 69 III 5 Implementation and enforcement ................................. 70 5.1 Instruction and education ................................. 70 5.2 Protecting Powers and other humanitarian agencies ....... 71 5.3 Collective responsibility ................................... 74 5.3a Reciprocity ................................................ 75 5.3b Reprisals .................................................. 76 5.3c Compensation ............................................. 77 5.3d External pressure ........................................... 78 5.3e Collective punishment ..................................... 79 5.4 Individual responsibility ................................... 79 CHAPTER IV THE PROTOCOLS OF 1977 ............................................ 83 IV 1 Protocol I ......................................................... 84 1.1 Character of the law ....................................... 84 1.2 Scope of application ....................................... 85 1.3 Combatant and prisoner-of-war status ..................... 86 1.3a Qualification as ‘armed force’ and ‘combatant’: general rules ............................................... 87 1.3b The individual obligation of the combatant to distinguish himself from civilians ........................ 88 1.3c Exception to the general rule of distinction ................. 88 1.3d Espionage ................................................. 89 1.3e Mercenaries ............................................... 90 1.3f Treatment in case of doubt about status .................... 91 1.4 Methods and means of warfare ............................ 91 1.4a Basic rules ................................................. 91 1.4b Perfidy and ruses of war .................................... 93 1.4c Emblems, flags and uniforms ............................... 94 1.4d Quarter .................................................... 95 TABLE OF CONTENTS 5 1.4e Occupants of an aircraft in distress ......................... 96 1.5 Protection of the civilian population ....................... 96 1.5a Basic rule and field of application .......................... 97 1.5b Civilians and combatants .................................. 98 1.5c Civilian objects and military objectives ..................... 100 1.5d Two main lines of protection ............................... 102 1.5e Prohibition of attacks against the civilian population and civilian objects ........................................ 102 1.5f Prohibition to attack specified objects ...................... 104 1.5g Precautionary measures .................................... 107 1.5h Protection of the civilian population and nuclear weapons .. 111 1.5i Localities and zones under special protection .............. 112 1.5j Civil defence .............................................. 114 1.6 Wounded, sick and shipwrecked .......................... 117 1.6a General remarks ........................................... 117 1.6b Medical units, medical personnel, religious personnel ...... 119 1.6c Medical transportation ..................................... 121 1.6d Identification .............................................. 124 1.6e General protection of medical duties ....................... 125 1.6f Role of the civilian population and of aid societies .......... 125 1.6g Other matters .............................................. 126 1.7 Relief in favour of the civilian population .................. 127 1.8 Treatment of persons in the power of a party to the conflict ............................................. 128 IV 2 Protocol II ........................................................ 132 2.1 Scope of application ....................................... 132 2.2 Protected persons ......................................... 134 2.3 Humane treatment ........................................ 134 2.4 Wounded, sick and shipwrecked .......................... 136 2.5 Civilian population ........................................ 137 IV 3 Implementation and enforcement ................................. 139 3.1 Instruction and education ................................. 139 3.2 Protecting Powers and other humanitarian agencies ....... 140 3.3 Collective responsibility ................................... 142 3.3a Reciprocity ................................................ 143 3.3b Reprisals .................................................. 143 3.3c Compensation ............................................. 147 3.4 Individual responsibility ................................... 147 3.5 Other measures of implementation and enforcement ...... 150 3.5a Activities of the Red Cross and Red Crescent and other humanitarian organisations ...................... 151 3.5b International activities for the promotion of international humanitarian law .......................... 152 3.5c International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission ...... 153 6 CONSTRAINTS ON THE WAGING OF WAR CHAPTER V POST-1977 DEVELOPMENTS: SUBSTANTIVE LAW ................. 155 V 1 Conventional weapons ............................................ 155 1.1 The Weapons Convention of 1980 and Annexed Protocols . 155 1.1a The Convention ........................................... 156 1.1b Protocol I on non-detectable fragments ..................... 159 1.1c Protocol II on mines, booby-traps and other devices ........ 159 1.1d Protocol III on incendiary weapons ......................... 162 1.1e Protocol IV on blinding laser weapons ..................... 164 1.1f Amended Protocol II on mines, booby traps and similar devices ........................................ 165 1.1g Reciprocity and reprisals ..................................