To fulfil its task of disseminating IHL, the ICRC has delegates around the world teaching armed and security forces that military objectives include: “the armed forces except medical service and religious personnel and objects”. The manual further specifies: “It is permitted to directly attack only members of the armed forces and other persons – only if they directly participate in military operations.”. The accused’s position is stated to be that this Court has no jurisdiction to try him. The same consideration is true for the launching of attacks in the knowledge that they will cause excessive incidental civilian damage, injury or death. This means the combatants who belong to the armed forces, and the equipment used by them (tanks, vehicles, aircraft, etc). The M16 remains in use in more than fifteen NATO countries and over eighty countries across the globe. These civilians may be excluded from the proportionality analysis. These targets [include] … supply dumps”. It thus constitutes a military objective in any case as its destruction would offer a considerable military advantage. Ireland’s Basic LOAC Guide (2005) states: “Military objectives … obviously include enemy soldiers and combatants”. -war-ships, which means all vessels belonging to the armed forces of a state bearing the external marks which distinguish the war-ships of their nationality; the commander must be in the service of the state, his name figuring on the list of the officers of the fighting fleet or in a similar document; the crew must be subject to military discipline; -vessels converted into war-ships, namely, those meeting the following conditions: it is placed under the direct authority, immediate control, and responsibility of the power whose flag it flies; bear the external marks which distinguish the war-ships of their nationality; are under the command of an officer who is in the service of the state, his name figuring on the list of the officers of the fighting fleet or in a similar document; the crew must be subject to military discipline. In its chapter on “Air Operations”, the manual states: 8.56 … If there is doubt as to the status of a civil aircraft, it should be called upon to clarify that status. Civilians within or in the immediate vicinity of a military objective share the risk to which the objective is exposed.”, Côte d’Ivoire’s Teaching Manual (2007) notes in Book I (basic instruction): “Civilians situated inside or near a military objective share the risk to which the military objective is exposed.”. Australia’s Defence Force Manual (1994) states: 525 – Military objectives are those persons and objects which by their nature, location, purpose or use make an effective contribution to military action and whose total or partial destruction, capture or neutralization, in the circumstances ruling at the time, offers a definite military advantage. Report on the Practice of Colombia, 1998, Chapter 1.3, referring to Defensoría del Pueblo, In 2010, in the History and Geography Textbook for 8th Grade, Djibouti’s Ministry of National Education and Higher Education, under the heading “Terminology”, defined military objectives as: “Objects which by their nature, location, purpose or use make an effective contribution to military action and whose total or partial destruction offers a concrete military advantage.”. The definition of the war crime “launching an attack in the knowledge that such attack will cause incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects which would be clearly excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated” follows more closely the wording found in the Statute of the International Criminal Court. The Commission also recognizes that not all such power stations would qualify as military objectives, for example, power stations that are known, or should be known, to be segregated from a general power grid and are limited to supplying power for humanitarian purposes, such as medical facilities, or other uses that could have no effect on the State’s ability to wage war. S/22115, 21 January 1991. The US Air Force Pamphlet (1976) considers that “troops in the field are military objectives beyond any dispute”. Firstly, regarding the nature of the objective, it must be noted that the military character of an object or an objective may only be appreciated in relation to its value for the armed forces. References to more practice can be found in the commentary to Rule 7. 0512. Examples are a bridge, which can definitely count as a military objective while at the same time its internal structure carries the energy supply to the civilian population of the region. 3) Places: every defended position. Propaganda and influence operations, including operations directed towards the civilian population, have been a common and widely accepted feature of warfare throughout the ages. positions, barracks and depots)” as military objectives. In 2000, in a report on the NATO bombings in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Amnesty International concluded that “in one instance, the attack on the headquarters of Serbian state radio and television (RTS), NATO launched a direct attack on a civilian object, killing 16 civilians. Under international law there is widespread recognition that lines of transportation which can serve military purposes are a legitimate military target. The US Naval Handbook (1995) considers communications and command and control facilities, as well as “lines of communication and other objects used to conduct or support military operations”, as proper targets for naval attack. These are violations of customary international law, listed as war crimes in the Statute of the International Criminal Court. In 2008, in a background paper on Israel’s operations in Gaza, Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated: The generally accepted definition of “military objective” is that set out in Article 52(2) of [the 1977] Additional Protocol I of the Geneva Conventions, which provides: Insofar as objects are concerned, military objectives are limited to those objects which by their nature, location, purpose or use make an effective contribution to military action and whose total or partial destruction, capture or neutralization, in the circumstances ruling at the time, offers a definite military advantage. Report on the Practice of Spain, 1998, Chapter 1.3, referring to. Under this definition, which deals with equipment and infrastructure, it must not be forgotten, first, that the armed forces constitute a military objective. Italy’s LOAC Elementary Rules Manual (1991) includes “areas of tactical importance” among military objectives. The civilian population as such, as well as individual civilians, shall not be the object of attack. Proper economic targets for naval attack include enemy lines of communication used for military purposes, rail yards, bridges, rolling stock, barges, lighters, industrial installations producing war-fighting products, and power generation plants. According to Italy’s IHL Manual (1991), “lines and means of communication which can be used for the needs of the armed forces” are military objectives. As shown by the formulation “as long as they are entitled to the protection given to civilians or civilian objects under international humanitarian law” in the Statute of the International Criminal Court. War crimes include the following serious violations of international humanitarian law: (i) Grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions: In the case of an international armed conflict, any of the following acts committed against persons or property protected under the provisions of the relevant Geneva Convention: • torture or inhuman treatment, including biological experiments; • wilfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health; • extensive destruction or appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly; • compelling a prisoner of war or other protected person to serve in the forces of a hostile Power; • wilfully depriving a prisoner of war or other protected person of the rights of a fair and regular trial; This list of grave breaches was included in the Geneva Conventions largely on the basis of crimes pursued after the Second World War by the International Military Tribunals at Nuremberg and at Tokyo and by national courts. In particular this raises the complex issue of proportionality. Instructions for the Government of Armies of the United States in the Field, prepared by Francis Lieber, promulgated as General Order No. Colombia’s Military Manual (1999) states: Objects that are normally of a civilian nature can, according to the military situation, become military objectives (for example, a house, a bridge tactically used by defenders, and therefore a target for the attackers). XIII, § I(5) of the proposed annex to Article 7(2). Cameroon’s Instructor’s Manual (1992) states: 2.1.2 Military objective definition: Is considered a military objective: - other goods whose existence or destruction contributes in some way to the military action. - Establishments, buildings and positions where armed forces or their material is located … (e.g. In 2010, in its Report on IHL and Current Armed Conflicts, Switzerland’s Federal Council stated that “government troops, … , according to international humanitarian law, represent legitimate military objectives and may be attacked at any moment”. In an explanatory memorandum submitted to the Belgian Parliament in 1985 in the context of the ratification procedure of the 1977 Additional Protocols, the Belgian Government stated that “each person, even a civilian, who is located inside a military objective, is exposed to the consequences of the risks that objective runs”. At the CDDH, the United States expressed its understanding that: In 1992, in a review of the legality of extended range anti-armour munition, the US Department of the Air Force stated: An area of land can be a military objective if by its nature, location, purpose or use it makes an effective contribution to military action and its total or partial destruction, denial, capture or neutralization offers a definite military advantage, in the circumstances ruling at the time.