France
Practice Relating to Rule 109. Search for, Collection and Evacuation of the Wounded, Sick and Shipwrecked
France’s LOAC Summary Note (1992) provides: “Wounded, sick and shipwrecked shall be searched for and collected … by the Party to the conflict in whose power they may be.”
France’s LOAC Teaching Note (2000) provides: “The wounded, sick and shipwrecked shall be searched for and collected … by the Party to the conflict in whose power they may be.”
France’s LOAC Manual (2001) restates Article 15 of the 1949 Geneva Convention I and Article 18 of the 1949 Geneva Convention II.
France’s Code of Defence (2004), as amended in 2008, states:
Combatants must collect, protect and care for the wounded, sick and shipwrecked without any discrimination on the grounds of race, gender, religion, nationality, ideology or ethnic group.
In February 1987, the French Government issued a communiqué in relation to the besieged Palestinian camps in southern Lebanon and invited “the entire international community to mobilize and act in solidarity so that … wounded can be safely evacuated”.
The instructions given to the French armed forces for the conduct of Opération Mistral, simulating a military operation under the right of self-defence or a mandate of the UN Security Council, state: “The wounded and sick, whether civilian or military, must be respected, collected, protected and cared for.”