Related Rule
France
Practice Relating to Rule 97. Human Shields
France’s LOAC Summary Note (1992) prohibits the use of individual civilians or inhabited areas in order to protect military formations, movements or positions.
France, Fiche de Synthèse sur les Règles Applicables dans les Conflits Armés, Note No. 432/DEF/EMA/OL.2/NP, Général de Corps d’Armée Voinot (pour l’Amiral Lanxade, Chef d’Etat-major des Armées), 1992, § 4.3.
France’s LOAC Teaching Note (2000) provides that protected persons “cannot be used in any case as human shields”. The prohibition is also stated regarding prisoners of war.
France, Fiche didactique relative au droit des conflits armés, Directive of the Ministry of Defence, 4 January 2000, annexed to the Directive No. 147 of the Ministry of Defence of 4 January 2000, pp. 3 and 5.
France’s LOAC Manual (2001) restates Article 51(7) of the 1977 Additional Protocol I. It also provides: “To use protected persons as human shields to protect military objectives is strictly prohibited.”
France, Manuel de droit des conflits armés, Ministère de la Défense, Direction des Affaires Juridiques, Sous-Direction du droit international humanitaire et du droit européen, Bureau du droit des conflits armés, 2001, pp. 33–34 and 101.
France’s Penal Code (1992), as amended in 2010, states in its section on war crimes related to international armed conflict:
Using a person protected by the international law of armed conflict with the aim of deterring certain points, zones or military forces from being targeted by military operations, is punishable by 20 years’ imprisonment.
France, Penal Code, 1992, as amended in 2010, Article 461-19.
The Report on the Practice of France refers to various statements in which the French President, Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs have condemned the use of civilians, prisoners of war and members of peacekeeping operations as human shields.
Report on the Practice of France, 1999, Chapter 1.7, referring to Message of the President to Parliament, 27 August 1990, Politique étrangère de la France, August 1990, p. 105; Communiqué of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 21 January 1991, Annuaire français de droit international, Vol. 37, 1991, p. 1019; Prime Minister, Answer to questions in Parliament regarding Bosnia and Herzegovina, 31 May 1995, Politique étrangère de la France, May 1995, pp. 81–82; Minister of Foreign Affairs, Declaration before Parliament, 6 June 1995, Politique étrangère de la France, June 1995, p. 99; and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Declaration before the Senate, 7 June 1995, Politique étrangère de la France, June 1995, p. 106.
In 2009, the President of the French Republic stated: “In Sri Lanka … [t]he Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam movement should stop resorting to the use of human shields … .”
France, Address by the President of the French Republic on the 90th Anniversary of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, 4 May 2009, p. 2.
