A/HRC/34/64 distinction.50 Objects used for humanitarian relief operations such as humanitarian aid convoys must be respected and protected.51 Attacking, destroying, removing or otherwise rendering useless objects which are indispensable to the survival of a besieged civilian population is further prohibited.52 Hospitals, medical units, and medical personnel 36. Hospitals, medical units, and medical personnel are afforded “special protection” under IHL as a result of their specific humanitarian function, and parties to a conflict must take additional, specific measures prior to targeting, directly or indirectly, such objectives. 37. Medical personnel exclusively assigned to medical duties must be respected and protected in all circumstances.53 Medical personnel lose their protection if act outside their humanitarian function, for example by taking a direct participation in hostilities. 54 Punishing an individual for performing his/her medical duties compatible with medical ethics, such as committing acts of reprisal on doctors, is further prohibited. 55 Common Article 3 requires that the wounded and sick, including fighters rendered hors de combat, are collected and cared for, and specifically protects such persons from violence to life, 56 while customary IHL requires that parties to a non-international armed conflict may only treat injured persons differently based on medical grounds. 57 38. Medical units exclusively assigned to medical purposes must be respected and protected in all circumstances, however lose their protected status if they used outside their humanitarian function to commit acts harmful to the enemy. 58 Medical transports assigned exclusively to medical transportation such as ambulances must be respected and protected in all circumstances. Medical transports also lose their protection when being used outside their humanitarian function to commit acts harmful to the enemy. 59 39. Attacks directed against medical personnel and objects displaying the distinctive emblems of the Geneva Conventions in conformity with international law are prohibited. 60 The display of a distinctive emblem to signify the protected status of a location is not required however in conflicts where hospitals are deliberately targeted. 61 Stated another way, the emblem is not a compulsory condition for the right to protection. While medical personnel as well as hospitals, medical units, and transport may be made the object of attack when used outside their humanitarian function for military purposes. Protection only 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 Ibid. at Rules 1 and 31. Ibid. at Rule 32. Ibid. at Rule 54. Ibid. at Rule 25. Ibid. Ibid. at Rule 26. See Article 3 Common to the Geneva Conventions, available in, e.g., International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, 12 August 1949, 6 U.S.T. 3516, 75 U.N.T.S. 287 at Art. 3. ICRC Rule 110. Ibid.at Rule 28. Ibid.at Rule 29. Ibid.at Rule 30. Commentary on the Additional Protocols of 8 June 1977 to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, 17 October 1987, at ¶ 4742, available at www.loc.gov/rr/frd/Military_Law/pdf/Commentary_GC_Protocols.pdf. The Commission has determined that “Government forces targeted hospitals and medical clinics in areas not under their control” in Aleppo city. See A/HRC/31/68, at para. 60. 31