Related Rule
New Zealand
Practice Relating to Rule 129. The Act of Displacement
Section B. Evacuation of the civilian population
New Zealand’s Military Manual (1992) provides that in occupied territory, “permissible measures of population control include … evacuation”.
New Zealand, Interim Law of Armed Conflict Manual, DM 112, New Zealand Defence Force, Headquarters, Directorate of Legal Services, Wellington, November 1992, § 1322(2).
With respect to non-international armed conflicts in particular, the manual states: “It is forbidden to displace the civilian population for reasons connected with the conflict, unless their security or imperative military reasons so demand.”
New Zealand, Interim Law of Armed Conflict Manual, DM 112, New Zealand Defence Force, Headquarters, Directorate of Legal Services, Wellington, November 1992, § 1823.
The manual refers to Article 17 of the 1949 Geneva Convention IV, which requires that “belligerents endeavour to conclude local agreements for the removal from besieged or encircled areas of wounded, sick, infirm and aged persons … and maternity cases”.
New Zealand, Interim Law of Armed Conflict Manual, DM 112, New Zealand Defence Force, Headquarters, Directorate of Legal Services, Wellington, November 1992, § 508(3).
Under New Zealand’s International Crimes and ICC Act (2000), war crimes include the crimes defined in Article 8(2)(e)(viii) of the 1998 ICC Statute.
New Zealand, International Crimes and ICC Act, 2000, Section 11(2).
