Règle correspondante
Colombia
Practice Relating to Rule 11. Indiscriminate Attacks
Colombia’s Penal Code (2000) imposes a criminal sanction on “anyone who, during an armed conflict, carries out or orders the carrying out of indiscriminate attacks”.
Colombia, Penal Code, 2000, Article 144.
In 2007, in the Constitutional Case No. C-291/07, the Plenary Chamber of Colombia’s Constitutional Court stated:
The principle of distinction is complex and encompasses a number of treaty and customary norms applicable in internal armed conflicts, in addition to, in many cases, enjoying ius cogens status. These rules [include] … the prohibition against indiscriminate attacks.
Colombia, Constitutional Court, Constitutional Case No. C-291/07, Judgment of 25 April 2007, pp. 84–86; see also p. 94.
The Court further held:
The protection of civilians against indiscriminate attacks is a norm of customary international law applicable in all international or internal armed conflicts. Indiscriminate attacks are never justified, even when non-civilians or combatants are present among a civilian population.
Colombia, Constitutional Court, Constitutional Case No. C-291/07, Judgment of 25 April 2007, p. 94.
(footnote in original omitted)