Related Rule
South Africa
Practice Relating to Rule 152. Command Responsibility for Orders to Commit War Crimes
South Africa’s LOAC Manual (1996) provides: “Signatory States are required to treat as criminals under domestic law anyone who commits or orders a grave breach.”
South Africa, Presentation on the South African Approach to International Humanitarian Law, Appendix A, Chapter 4: International Humanitarian Law (The Law of Armed Conflict), National Defence Force, 1996, § 35.
The manual further states: “An order to commit a war crime is an unlawful order … The person giving such an order would also be guilty of a war crime.”
South Africa, Presentation on the South African Approach to International Humanitarian Law, Appendix A, Chapter 4: International Humanitarian Law (The Law of Armed Conflict), National Defence Force, 1996, § 44.
