Collective punishment

It ensures that the collective punishment of a group of persons for a crime committed by an individual is forbidden...This is one of the fundamental guarantees established by the Geneva Conventions and their protocols.

In Alamarin v. IDF Commander in Gaza Strip the Israeli High Court of Justice held that the homes of Palestinians who have committed violent acts may be demolished under the Defence (Emergency) Regulations, even if the residence has other inhabitants who are unconnected to the crime.

[13] The counterargument against the validity of the regulation is two-fold: firstly, that it should have been properly revoked by 1967 as an institution of the former colonial rule; secondly, that it is incompatible with Israel's modern treaty obligations.

[3] Some scholars consider the rape of German women by the Red Army during the Russian advance into Germany in 1945 towards the end of World War II as a form of collective punishment.

[18] The principle of collective punishment was laid out by Union General William Tecumseh Sherman in his Special Field Order 120, November 9, 1864, which laid out the rules for his "March to the sea" in the American Civil War: V. To army corps commanders alone is entrusted the power to destroy mills, houses, cotton-gins, etc..., and for them this general principle is laid down: In districts and neighborhoods where the army is unmolested, no destruction of such property should be permitted; but should guerrillas or bushwhackers molest our march, or should the inhabitants burn bridges, obstruct roads, or otherwise manifest local hostility, then army commanders should order and enforce a devastation more or less relentless according to the measure of such hostility.

During the Nazi occupation of Poland, the Germans applied collective responsibility: any kind of help given to a Jewish person was punishable by death, and that not only for the rescuers themselves but also for their families.

Mass executions of roundup (Polish: łapanka) hostages were conducted every single day during the Wehrmacht advance across Poland in September 1939 and thereafter.

[26][27] The expulsion of German speaking population groups after World War II by the Soviet Union, Poland and Czechoslovakia represent one of the greatest examples of collective punishment in terms of the number of victims.

[35][full citation needed] Joseph Stalin's mass deportations of many nationalities of the USSR to remote regions (including the Chechens, Crimean Tatars, Volga Germans and many others) exemplifies officially orchestrated collective punishment.

Stalin used the partial removal of potentially trouble-making ethnic groups as a technique consistently during his career: Poles (1939–1941 and 1944–45), Romanians (1941 and 1944–1953), Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians (1941 and 1945–1949), Volga Germans (1941), Chechens, and Ingushes (1944).

Shortly before, during and immediately after World War II, Stalin conducted a series of deportations on a huge scale which profoundly affected the ethnic map of the Soviet Union.

When asked about the riots, Rajiv, a Congress party member who was sworn in as the Prime Minister after his mother's death, said "When a big tree falls, the earth shakes".

In 1951, the British government announced plans which stipulated that non-combatants found supporting the Malayan National Liberation Army would be subject to 'collective punishment'.

During the Mau Mau Uprising, the colonial administration also utilised collective punishment as a tactic against the Kenya Land and Freedom Army, while in Cyprus (during the Cyprus Emergency) the British authorities adopted a tactic of home evictions and business closures in regions where British personnel had been murdered in order to obtain information about the identities of the murderers.

[52] Israel's use of collective punishment measures, such as movement restrictions, shelling of residential areas, mass arrests, and the destruction of public health infrastructure[a] violates Articles 33 and 53 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

Critics argue that the blockade restricts the movement of people and goods, including essential supplies such as food, medicine, and construction materials, severely impacting the daily lives and humanitarian conditions of Gaza's residents.

[58] Similarly, reports commissioned by the United Nations have highlighted the disproportionate impact of the blockade on civilians, with widespread implications for healthcare, education, and infrastructure.

For instance, demolitions of homes, targeting of infrastructure, and restrictions on fuel and electricity supplies have further exacerbated the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Critics argue that these actions violate principles of proportionality and necessity under international law, disproportionately affecting civilians rather than addressing specific security concerns.

[62] Israeli officials, however, maintain that the blockade is a necessary security measure to prevent the smuggling of weapons and materials that could be used by Hamas and other militant groups.

[63] The debate over the legality and morality of the blockade continues to draw international scrutiny, with many advocating for immediate relief to Gaza's humanitarian crisis and a reassessment of policies that affect civilians indiscriminately.

[64] An anonymous former member of the Transitional Government of Tigray claimed that Ethiopia and Eritrea used the destruction of the Tigrayan economy as "a tactic to defeat the enemy", arguing they succeeded in taking the region "back 40 years"; Noé Hochet-Bodin of Le Monde described this as an act of "collective punishment".

[65] On 27 May 2021, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Robert F. Godec made the argument that the EDF and ENDF had enacted "[what] amounts to the collective punishment of the people of Tigray" through a "campaign of unremitting violence and destruction".

[69] In contrast to these other systems, the condemned are sent there without any form of judicial process as are their immediate three generations of family members as kin punishment[citation needed].

North Korea sanctions severely limit the import of essential goods such as food, medical supplies, and fuel, which exacerbates the chronic hardships faced by millions of civilians.

[72] Similarly, bans on medical equipment and pharmaceuticals hinder access to healthcare, disproportionately affecting vulnerable groups like children, the elderly, and pregnant women.

[73] These outcomes are not incidental but are foreseeable consequences of the sanctions regime, as the impact is felt most acutely by civilians rather than the ruling elite who remain insulated from the economic hardship through control of illicit trade networks and state resources.

[80][81] Human Rights Watch said these are war crimes, as the only military targets were the few rebels manning the bakeries, and that dozens of civilians were killed.

[82] In Idlib province in the northwest of the country, entire cities were shelled and bombed for sheltering opposition activists and rebels, with the victims mostly civilians, along with heavy financial losses.