France
Practice Relating to Rule 147. Reprisals against Protected Objects
Section D. Objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population
France’s Disciplinary Regulations (1975), as amended, states: “By virtue of international conventions regularly ratified or approved: … it is prohibited [to soldiers in combat] … to take hostages, to engage in reprisals or collective punishments”.
France’s LOAC Manual (2001), in the chapter dealing with means and methods of warfare, states: “The law of armed conflict prohibits … the methods of warfare which consist in the recourse: … to reprisals against non-military objectives”.
The manual refers,
inter alia, to Articles 51–56 of the 1977 Additional Protocol I and states: “Reprisals are prohibited against … objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population”.