In 1973, during a debate in the Sixth Committee of the UN General Assembly on the protection of human rights in times of armed conflict, the Federal Republic of Germany stated that “it supported proposals for a restriction on the right to resort to reprisals”. 

At the CDDH, the Federal Republic of Germany, with regard to the French proposal for a draft article on reprisals, held that the principle of proportionality laid down therein was based on “precedents established in 1928 and 1930, which were now universally recognised”.