Related Rule
Switzerland
Practice Relating to Rule 103. Collective Punishments
Switzerland’s Basic Military Manual (1987) refers to Article 87 of the 1949 Geneva Convention III and states that “collective punishments are prohibited” and that “collective and individual punishments affecting food are prohibited”.
Switzerland, Lois et coutumes de la guerre (Extrait et commentaire), Règlement 51.7/II f, Armée Suisse, 1987, Articles 106 (POWs) and 120.
With respect to occupied territories, the manual states that “collective punishments … are prohibited”. It also provides the following examples of prohibited collective punishments: “condemnation of the whole population of a village to forced labour [and] collective fines or temporary closing of all schools in retaliation for offences committed by a few inhabitants”.
Switzerland, Lois et coutumes de la guerre (Extrait et commentaire), Règlement 51.7/II f, Armée Suisse, 1987, Article 153 (civilians in occupied territory).
In 2010, in its Report on IHL and Current Armed Conflicts, Switzerland’s Federal Council stated:
3.4 [Increasing use] of anti-guerrilla tactics
…
Apart from the direct fight against insurgents, international humanitarian law also addresses other anti-guerrilla tactics. … If members of militias or opposition groups fall into the hands of the government they benefit from the protection of art. 75 of [the 1977] Additional Protocol I as well as that of art. 3 common to the [1949] Geneva Conventions.
Switzerland, Federal Council, Report on IHL and Current Armed Conflicts, 17 September 2010, Section 3.4, p. 15.
[footnotes in original omitted]