Related Rule
Italy
Practice Relating to Rule 35. Hospital and Safety Zones and Neutralized Zones
Italy’s LOAC Elementary Rules Manual (1991) states: “Where protected zones or localities (hospital zones …) have been agreed upon, the competent commanders shall issue instructions for action and behaviour near and towards such zones or localities.”
Italy, Regole elementari di diritto di guerra, SMD-G-012, Stato Maggiore della Difesa, I Repartee, Uffizi Addestramento e Regolamenti, Rome, 1991, § 47.
The manual also provides that “protected zones shall be respected”.
Italy, Regole elementari di diritto di guerra, SMD-G-012, Stato Maggiore della Difesa, I Reparto, Ufficio Addestramento e Regolamenti, Rome, 1991, § 70.
Italy’s IHL Manual (1991) qualifies “attacks on … hospital and safety zones which must be respected and protected at all times” as a war crime.
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, § 85.
Italy’s Combatant’s Manual (1998) states:
Hospital and Safety Zones are protected by the emblem “White flag with an oblique red line”.
…
IT IS PROHIBITED to use these zones for military purposes.
Italy, Manuale del Combattente, SME 1000/A/2, Stato Maggiore Esercito/Reparto Impiego delle Forze, Ufficio Dottrina, Addestramento e Regolamenti, 1998, § 248.
[emphasis in original] Italy’s Law of War Decree (1938), as amended in 1992, provides:
A royal decree can establish rules to guarantee, on the basis of reciprocity, respect for and protection of towns or localities used exclusively by the medical services or for the protection of the civilian population.
Italy, Law of War Decree, 1938, as amended in 1992, Article 46.
