القاعدة ذات الصلة
Italy
Practice Relating to Rule 47. Attacks against Persons Hors de Combat
Section B. Specific categories of persons hors de combat
Italy’s IHL Manual (1991) states that it is prohibited to use violence “to kill or injure an enemy … when he, having laid down arms or having no longer means of defence, has surrendered at discretion”. It also forbids “firing at the shipwrecked”.
Italy, Manuale di diritto umanitario, Introduzione e Volume I, Usi e convenzioni di Guerra, SMD-G-014, Stato Maggiore della Difesa, I Reparto, Ufficio Addestramento e Regolamenti, Rome, 1991, Vol. I, § 8(2) and (3).
Italy’s LOAC Elementary Rules Manual (1991) states: “A combatant who is recognized (or should be recognized) as being out of combat may not be attacked (surrendering, wounded, shipwrecked in water …). The intent to surrender can be shown with a white flag.”
Italy, Regole elementari di diritto di guerra, SMD-G-012, Stato Maggiore della Difesa, I Reparto, Ufficio Addestramento e Regolamenti, Rome, 1991, § 72.
Furthermore, one of the rules to be observed when confronted with enemy combatants who surrender is “to spare them”.
Italy, Regole elementari di diritto di guerra, SMD-G-012, Stato Maggiore della Difesa, I Reparto, Ufficio Addestramento e Regolamenti, Rome, 1991, p. 29.
Italy’s Combatant’s Manual (1998) states: “IT IS NOT PERMITTED to attack enemy soldiers demonstrating the intention to surrender.”
Italy, Manuale del Combattente, SME 1000/A/2, Stato Maggiore Esercito/Reparto Impiego delle Forze, Ufficio Dottrina, Addestramento e Regolamenti, 1998, § 250.
(emphasis in original)Italy’s Law of War Decree (1938), as amended in 1992, provides that it is prohibited to use violence “to kill or injure an enemy … when he, having laid down arms and having no longer means of defence, has surrendered at discretion”. It also forbids “firing at the shipwrecked”.
Italy, Law of War Decree, 1938, as amended in 1992, Article 35(2) and (3).
