Related Rule
New Zealand
Practice Relating to Rule 91. Corporal Punishment
New Zealand’s Military Manual (1992) provides: “Corporal punishments [of POWs] … are forbidden.”
New Zealand, Interim Law of Armed Conflict Manual, DM 112, New Zealand Defence Force, Headquarters, Directorate of Legal Services, Wellington, November 1992, § 931.2.
The manual restates Article 75(2) of the 1977 Additional Protocol I, according to which “corporal punishment” is prohibited “at any time and in any place whatsoever, whether committed by civilian or by military agents”.
New Zealand, Interim Law of Armed Conflict Manual, DM 112, New Zealand Defence Force, Headquarters, Directorate of Legal Services, Wellington, November 1992, § 1137.2.
Regarding civilians, the manual stipulates that the 1949 Geneva Convention IV prohibits the parties from “taking any measure of such character as to cause the physical suffering … of protected persons in their hands”, including corporal punishment.
New Zealand, Interim Law of Armed Conflict Manual, DM 112, New Zealand Defence Force, Headquarters, Directorate of Legal Services, Wellington, November 1992, § 1321.4.
In the case of non-international armed conflict, the manual prohibits at any time and anywhere “any form of corporal punishment”.
New Zealand, Interim Law of Armed Conflict Manual, DM 112, New Zealand Defence Force, Headquarters, Directorate of Legal Services, Wellington, November 1992, § 1812.1.
