Germany
Practice Relating to Rule 28. Medical Units
Germany’s Military Manual (1992) provides:
612. Fixed medical establishments … and mobile medical units of the medical service shall under no circumstances be attacked. Their unhampered employment shall be ensured at all times. As far as possible, medical establishments and units shall be sited or employed at an adequate distance to military objectives
613. [Fixed medical establishments, vehicles and mobile medical units of the medical service] shall not be used to commit acts harmful to the enemy.
…
618. Medical establishments which contrary to their intended purpose are used to carry out acts harmful to the enemy may lose their protection after prior warning has been given.
619. To this effect, the following acts shall not be considered as hostile acts:
–that medical personnel use arms for their own protection, and that of the wounded and sick;
–that medical personnel and medical establishments are protected by sentries or an escort;
–that medical personnel are employed as sentries for the protection of their own medical establishments; and
–that war material taken from the wounded and sick is retained.
Germany’s IHL Manual (1996) states:
Fixed medical establishments … and mobile medical units of the medical service shall under no circumstance be attacked. Their unhampered employment shall be ensured at all times. As far as possible, medical establishments and units shall be sited or employed at an adequate distance to military objectives.
The manual further states that fixed medical establishments, vehicles and mobile medical units of the medical service “shall not be used to commit, outside their humanitarian function, acts harmful to the enemy”.
Germany’s Soldiers’ Manual (2006) states: “Fixed establishments, vehicles and mobile units of the medical service, without exception, may not be fought. Their unhampered employment shall be ensured at all times.”
Germany’s Law Introducing the International Crimes Code (2002) punishes anyone who, in connection with an international or non-international armed conflict, “carries out an attack against … medical units and transport designated with the distinctive emblems of the Geneva Conventions … in conformity with international humanitarian law”.