United States of America
Practice Relating to Rule 131. Treatment of Displaced Persons
Section A. Provision of basic necessities
The US Field Manual (1956) reproduces Article 49 of the 1949 Geneva Convention IV.
In the Krupp case in 1948, the US Military Tribunal at Nuremberg adopted the statement by Judge Phillips in his concurring opinion of 1947 in the Milch case according to which:
The third … condition under which deportation becomes illegal occurs whenever generally recognized standards of decency and humanity are disregarded. This flows from the established principle of law that an otherwise permissible act becomes a crime when carried out in a criminal manner. A close study of the pertinent parts of Control Council Law No. 10 strengthens the conclusions of the foregoing statements that deportation is criminal whenever there is no title in the deporting authority or whenever the purpose of the deportation is illegal or whenever the deportation is characterized by inhumane or illegal methods.
In 1991, during a debate in the UN Security Council on the repression of the Iraqi civilian population, including Kurds in Iraq, the United States stated that its air force would drop food, blankets, clothing, tents and other relief-related items into northern Iraq. The US military would continue to help IDPs in southern Iraq and were willing to send a military medical unit to the border area to assist. The United States expressed profound concern about the plight of displaced persons and noted that it had contributed generously to the care and maintenance of the displaced.