Collective Punishment

Collective punishment means imposing a penalty on persons or a group for conduct for which they have not been individually found responsible. Under the law of armed conflict, punishment cannot be based merely on family, community, ethnic, political or territorial association with the actual perpetrators.

Legal basis of the prohibition

The prohibition protects civilians and other persons who are in the hands of a party to the conflict and are not individually responsible for the alleged offence.

• Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, 1949 states that no protected person may be punished for an offence that he or she has not personally committed; it also prohibits collective penalties and measures of intimidation or terrorism.
• Article 75 of Additional Protocol I and Article 4 of Additional Protocol II prohibit collective punishments as fundamental guarantees in international and non-international armed conflicts, respectively.
• Customary international humanitarian law prohibits collective punishment in both international and non-international armed conflicts.

How collective punishment is identified

The decisive features are the absence of individual responsibility and the punitive character of the measure. The prohibition covers penalties imposed collectively, not only sentences formally imposed by courts.

• Punishment must rest on the conduct and responsibility of the particular person concerned, together with applicable fair-trial guarantees.
• A restriction affecting a population is not automatically collective punishment merely because it causes widespread hardship; its purpose, legal basis and compliance with other humanitarian-law rules must be examined.
• Measures such as movement restrictions, property destruction or deprivation may constitute collective punishment when they are used to penalise a population for acts committed by others.

Purpose and significance

The rule reflects the principle of individual responsibility and prevents reprisals against communities, hostage-like pressure and indiscriminate retaliation. It also operates alongside the rules of distinction, proportionality, precautions and humane treatment, which independently regulate military operations and treatment of protected persons.

How UPSC asks this