Italy
Practice Relating to Rule 146. Reprisals against Protected Persons
Italy’s IHL Manual (1991), providing for the prohibition of reprisals against prisoners of war, states: “The observance of international rules which expressly provide for the obligation to abide by them in any circumstances cannot be suspended by way of reprisals, such as, for instance, the rules regarding prisoners of war.”
Italy’s Law of War Decree (1938), as amended in 1992, provides: “Respect for rules adopted in order to comply with international conventions which expressly exclude reprisals cannot be suspended.”
Italy’s IHL Manual (1991), providing for the prohibition of reprisals against the wounded, sick and shipwrecked, states: “The observance of international rules which expressly provide for the obligation to abide by them in any circumstances cannot be suspended by way of reprisals, such as, for instance, the rules regarding … the wounded and the sick”.
Italy’s Law of War Decree (1938), as amended in 1992, provides: “Respect for rules adopted in order to comply with international conventions which expressly exclude reprisals cannot be suspended.”
Upon ratification of the 1977 Additional Protocol I, Italy stated: “Italy will react to serious and systematic violations by an enemy of the obligations imposed by Additional Protocol I … with all means admissible under international law in order to prevent any further violation.”
Italy’s IHL Manual (1991), providing for the prohibition of reprisals against protected medical personnel and protected persons, states: “The observance of international rules which expressly provide for the obligation to abide by them in any circumstances cannot be suspended by way of reprisals.”
Italy’s Law of War Decree (1938), as amended in 1992, provides: “Respect for rules adopted in order to comply with international conventions which expressly exclude reprisals cannot be suspended.”
Upon ratification of the 1977 Additional Protocol I, Italy stated:
Italy will react to serious and systematic violations by an enemy of the obligations imposed by Additional Protocol I … with all means admissible under international law in order to prevent any further violation.
Italy’s IHL Manual (1991), in a chapter dealing with occupied territory, states: “In occupied territories, civilian persons have the following rights: … they may not be … made the object of reprisals”.
Italy’s Law of War Decree (1938), as amended in 1992, provides: “Respect for rules adopted in order to comply with international conventions which expressly exclude reprisals cannot be suspended.”
In its judgment in the Schintlholzer case in 1988 dealing with the killing of Italian civilians by German soldiers in 1944, Italy’s Military Tribunal of Verona stated that the acts
definitely cannot be seen as falling within the limited system of reprisals or collective punishments; a system which, in any case, refers to the conditions and procedures provided for in international law. However, it seems difficult to deny that systematic violence against the defenceless constitutes a completely unjustified corollary of a military operation carried out by German troops [which had the aim to combat the partisans].
Italy’s IHL Manual (1991) provides that reprisals cannot be directed against the civilian population, except in case of absolute necessity. However, providing for the prohibition of reprisals against,
inter alia, protected civilian persons and protected persons, the manual also states: “The observance of international rules which expressly provide for the obligation to abide by them in any circumstances cannot be suspended by way of reprisals.”
Italy’s Combatant’s Manual (1998) instructs: “[D]o not engage in reprisals”.
Italy’s Law of War Decree (1938), as amended in 1992, provides: “Respect for rules adopted in order to comply with international conventions which expressly exclude reprisals cannot be suspended.”
Upon ratification of the 1977 Additional Protocol I, Italy stated:
Italy will react to serious and systematic violations by an enemy of the obligations imposed by Additional Protocol I and in particular its Articles 51 and 52 with all means admissible under international law in order to prevent any further violation.