Source: https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/customary-ihl/rus/docs/v2_cou_ca_rule96
Timestamp: 2020-07-13 14:05:00
Document Index: 188672494

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 33', '§ 14', '§ 10', '§ 1121', '§ 1135', '§ 1607', '§ 1713', '§ 96']

Canada’s LOAC Manual (1999) prohibits the taking of hostages in international and non-international armed conflicts.
Canada, The Law of Armed Conflict at the Operational and Tactical Level, Office of the Judge Advocate General, 1999, p. 11-4, §§ 33(e) and 63(c), p. 16-3, § 14(e) and p. 17-2, §§ 10 and 21.
e. the taking of hostages.
Canada, The Law of Armed Conflict at the Operational and Tactical Levels, Office of the Judge Advocate General, 13 August 2001, § 1121.2.e.
c. the taking of hostages;
Canada, The Law of Armed Conflict at the Operational and Tactical Levels, Office of the Judge Advocate General, 13 August 2001, § 1135.1, 2.c and e.
In its chapter on “War crimes, individual criminal liability and command responsibility”, the manual states: “In the case of civilians in the hands of the adverse party, it is also a grave breach: … e. to take hostages”.
Canada, The Law of Armed Conflict at the Operational and Tactical Levels, Office of the Judge Advocate General, 13 August 2001, § 1607.6.e.
ii taking of hostages.
c. taking of hostages;
Canada, The Law of Armed Conflict at the Operational and Tactical Levels, Office of the Judge Advocate General, 13 August 2001, § 1713.1.c and g.
Canada’s Prisoner of War Handling and Detainees Manual (2004) states: “Grave breaches of the 1949 Geneva Conventions and [the 1977 Additional Protocol I] include any of the following actions[:] … Taking hostage protected persons.”
Canada, Prisoner of War Handling, Detainees, Interrogation and Tactical Questioning in International Operations, B-GJ-005-110/FP-020, National Defence Headquarters, 1 August 2004, Annex G, “Guidance for the Employment of Prisoners of War”.
In the Fuentes case in 2003, the Federal Court of Canada recognized that “the international community through its Convention against the taking of hostages has proscribed hostage taking and characterized it in the circumstances set out in that Convention as an act of terrorism”.
Canada, Federal Court Trial Division, Fuentes case, Judgment, 31 March 2003, § 96.
In the Ribic case in 2005, Canada’s Ontario Superior Court of Justice stated:
[H]ostage-taking is a very serious offence under any circumstances. That Parliament has made it punishable by up to life imprisonment underscores this. The fact that Parliament has asserted worldwide jurisdiction over hostage-taking committed by a Canadian or perpetrated against a Canadian signifies, as well, how seriously our country regards this offence. Even in war between nations that is recognized as war and as governed by international standards of war, the taking of hostages and threatening the lives of combatants or of civilians is not sanctioned and is a crime. There is absolutely no basis on which to countenance the taking of anyone hostage, let alone doing that to unarmed personnel of other nations participating in the work of the United Nations and trying to bring about and maintain a peace in a vicious civil war in which innocent civilians are being subjected to atrocities on widespread basis.
Canada, Ontario Superior Court of Justice, Ribic case, Reasons for Sentence and Sentence, 15 September 2005, p. 11.