Arguments against Collective Punishment of a Community
1. Article 33 of the Geneva Convention (IV) on Civilians, 1949 states that:
• No protected person may be punished for an offense they have not personally committed.
• Collective penalties and all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited.
• Pillage is prohibited.
Article 33 is derived from Article 50 of the Hague Regulations, which states that "No general penalty, pecuniary or otherwise, shall be inflicted upon the population on account of the acts of individuals for which they cannot be regarded as jointly and severally responsible".
The Geneva Conventions provide specific rules to safeguard:
- Combatants, or members of the armed forces, who are wounded, sick or shipwrecked.
- Prisoners of war.
- Civilians.
- Medical personnel.
- Military chaplains.
- Civilian support workers of the military.
- Article 75 of the 1977 Additional Protocol I to the 1949 Geneva Conventions ensures that no person in the power of a party to an international armed conflict is outside the protection of international humanitarian law. It sets forth fundamental guarantees for persons in the hands of opposing forces in an international armed conflict.
Article 75 stipulates that:
- No person in the power of a party to an international armed conflict is outside the protection of international humanitarian law.
- Any person arrested, detained, or interned for actions related to the armed conflict shall be informed promptly, in a language they understand, of the reasons why these measures have been taken.
- Persons who have become refugees after the beginning of hostilities are covered by Article 75.
In cases not covered by this Protocol or by other international agreements, civilians and combatants remain under the protection and authority of the principles of international law.