A/HRC/44/60 methods against civilian populations hostile to their alien rule. 37 The methods used have included civilian executions, sustained curfews and closures of towns, food confiscation and starvation, punitive property destruction, the capture of hostages, economic closures on civilian populations, cutting off of power and water supplies, withholding of medical supplies, collective fines and mass detentions 38 These punishments are, in the words of the International Committee of the Red Cross (“ICRC”), “in defiance of the most elementary principles of humanity.”39 27. The logic of collective punishment has been to project domination in order to subdue a subjugated population through inflicting a steep price for its resistance to alien rule. Punishment has been imposed on civilian populations for practices ranging from having knowledge of fighters and refugees in the vicinity, to offering passive opposition and noncooperation, and to merely being related to, or neighbours of, resistance fighters. Yet, not only are these punitive acts profoundly unjust, they invariably backfire on the military authority, as the 1958 commentary by the ICRC on the Fourth Geneva Convention stated: Far from achieving the desired effect such practices, by reason of their excessive severity and cruelty, kept alive and strengthened the spirit of resistance. They strike at guilty and innocent alike. They are opposed to all principles based on humanity and justice, and it is for that reason that the prohibition of collective penalties is followed formally by the prohibition of all measures of intimidation or terrorism with regard to protected person40 A. International Law 28. To protect these principles of humanity and justice, international humanitarian law has expressly forbidden the use of collective punishment against civilian populations under occupation. The 1907 Hague Regulations prohibited the imposition of general penalties on the occupied population. 41 Expanding on this protection, Article 33 of the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention provides that: No protected person may be punished for an offense he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited. Pillage is prohibited. Reprisals against protected persons and their property are prohibited.42 29. This prohibition has been further entrenched by the 1977 Additional Protocol 1 of the Geneva Conventions. Article 75 establishes the “fundamental guarantees” respecting the treatment of protected people under occupation. Among these “fundamental guarantees” is “collective punishment”, which is “prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever, whether committed by civilian or by military agents”.43 30. Some states – such as Israel – have adopted the Fourth Geneva Convention, but have not ratified the 1977 Additional Protocol 1. Notwithstanding this, the ICRC has stated that the prohibition against collective punishment has become an accepted norm of customary international humanitarian law and, as such, it would be applicable to all states and 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 8 In response, Article 1, para. 4 of the 1977 Additional Protocols 1 to the Geneva Conventions has expressly extended the protection of international humanitarian law to armed conflicts involving colonial domination, alien occupation and racist regimes in the exercise of the right of selfdetermination. See generally C. Klocker, Collective Punishment and Human Rights Law (Routledge, 2020); and S. Darcy, Collective Responsibility and Accountability under International Law (Martinus Nijhoff, 2007). https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/applic/ihl/ihl.nsf/1a13044f3bbb5b8ec12563fb0066f226/36bd41f14e2 b3809c 12563cd0042bca9. Ibid. https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/applic/ihl/ihl.nsf/0/1d1726425f6955aec125641e0038bfd6, Article 50. https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6b36d2.html. https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6b36b4.html.