Objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population

== Definition ==
Objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population
Besides constituting civilian objects, objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population enjoy a special protection under IHL applicable in both international and non-international armed conflicts (IACs and NIACs, respectively).AP I, Art. 54; AP II, Art 14. See also UNSC, Res. 2573 (2021) S/RES/2573 (27 April 2021). As a corollary of the prohibition of starvation of the civilian population as a method of warfare,AP I, Art. 54; AP II, Art 14. See also ICRC CIHL Study, Rule 53. The Rome Statute of the ICC criminalizes “intentionally using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare by depriving them of objects indispensable to their survival” as a war crime in IACs under Article 8(2)(b)(xxv) and NIACs under Article 8(2)(e)(xix) as amended in 2020. See also the prohibition of starvation as a method or warfare in the cyber realm, Tallinn Manual 2.0, Rule 107. the rule prohibits to attack, destroy, remove, and render useless objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population. This rule is considered to reflect customary IHL.See also ICRC CIHL Study, Rule 54. See also Tallinn Manual 2.0, Rule 141, Commentary, para. 1. This protection has also been affirmed in the national positions of several States including Costa Rica,Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Costa Rica, “Costa Rica's Position on the Application of International Law in Cyberspace” (21 July 2023) 17: “61. Under IHL, it is prohibited to attack, destroy, remove or render useless objects indispensable to the survival of the population, including when using cyber operations. The protection under this rule extends to the ICT equipment and the data needed to operate such objects. Thus, for example, a cyber operation against food production systems, drinking water installations, or wastewater management systems would be a violation of IHL even if it did not reach the threshold of attack under IHL.” the Czech Republic,Czech Republic, “Position paper on the application of international law in cyberspace” (February 2024) 12: “43. It is prohibited to make objects indispensable for the survival of the civilian population the object of attack, including through cyber means. It is likewise prohibited to destroy, remove or render them useless by cyber means. Parties to an armed conflict must not disrupt the functioning of such objects, including through cyber means. All feasible measures must be taken to facilitate their functioning and prevent harm to these objects, including by cyber operations.” France,Ministry of Defense of France, “International Law Applied to Operations in Cyberspace” (9 September 2019) 15: “Cyberoperations must also take into account the special protection of certain objects, such as medical units, cultural property, the natural environment, objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population and installations that contain dangerous forces. This protection extends to ICT equipment and services and to the data needed to operate them, such as medical data linked to the operation of a hospital.” and Norway.Official compendium of voluntary national contributions on the subject of how international law applies to the use of information and communications technologies by States, UNODA, A/76/136 (August 2021), 75: “IHL also prohibits attacking, destroying, removing or rendering useless objects indispensable to the survival of the population, including through cyber means and methods of warfare. ‘Objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population’ include ICT infrastructure for food production or drinking water installations.”
These specially protected objects include, although are not limited to, foodstuffs, agricultural areas for their production, crops, livestock, drinking water installations and supplies, and irrigation works. The enumeration provided by the IHL rules is merely illustrative and should be interpreted in the wider sense to cover the means of existence of the populations,See Yves Sandoz, Christophe Swinarski and Bruno Zimmerman, Commentary to Additional Protocols (ICRC 1987) 655, paras. 2102-3 and 1458, para. 4802-3. including both objects of sustenance and those contributing to their production.Geneva Water Hub, The Geneva List of Principles on the Protection of Water Infrastructure, Geneva (2019) 50, citing the Official Records of the Diplomatic Conference (Geneva, 1974-1977), Vol. XV, CDDH/III/264/Rev.1, 349. As has been affirmed, “[i]t extends to pieces of energy infrastructure critical to the effective operation of other indispensable objects” (See  Eirini Giorgou and Abby Zeith, “When the lights go out: the protection of energy infrastructure in armed conflict” (Humanitarian Law & Policy, 20 April 2023))
The prohibition covers a broader range of operations which are designed or can be expected to disable or render these objects useless, irrespective of them qualifying as attacks and beyond their destruction.Laurent Gisel, Tilman Rodenhäuser and Knut Dörmann, “Twenty years on: International humanitarian law and the protection of civilians against the effects of cyber operations during armed conflicts”, (2022) 102 (913) International Review of the Red Cross, 287–334, 327-8; Kubo Mačák and Laurent Gisel, “The Legal Constraints of Cyber Operations in Armed Conflicts”, in Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan (ed) Future Warfare and Technology: Issues and Strategies (ORF and Global Policy Journal 2022) 147. See for example the analysis with regards to ransomware in Jeffrey Biller, “The Strategic Use of Ransomware Operations as a Method of Warfare”, (2023) 100 International Law Studies. As interpreted by the ICRC, it covers all possibilities, including the pollution of water reservoirs by chemical or other agents and the destruction of crops by defoliants, in offence or defense.Yves Sandoz, Christophe Swinarski and Bruno Zimmerman, Commentary to Additional Protocols (ICRC 1987), 655, para. 2101.
Additional Protocol I applicable to IACs refers to the purpose of denying these objects of their sustenance value regardless of the motive, i.e., whether to starve the civilian population or to cause their movement. It is controversial whether the same interpretation applies to NIACs, since part of the doctrine has argued that Additional Protocol II prohibits the abovementioned acts only when undertaken with the purpose of starvation of civilian population.Tallinn Manual 2.0, Rule 141, Commentary, para. 2.
IHL applicable to IACs provides for two exceptions to the rule: (i) in case the sustenance is solely for members of the adversary forces; or (ii) when they are used in direct support of military action, provided that the actions shall not in any event be expected to cause starvation or force the movement of the civilian population. It is doubtful, however, whether these exceptions also apply to non-international armed conflicts, since they are not provided under Additional Protocol II and there is no practice supporting it under Customary IHL.ICRC CIHL Study, Commentary to Rule 54. Some stakeholders have in any case urged States parties to IACs to refrain from carrying harmful acts under any circumstances, even if the conditions of the exceptions are met.See Geneva Water Hub, The Geneva List of Principles on the Protection of Water Infrastructure, Geneva (2019) 52. In any case, the obligations of proportionality and precautions must be fully respected even if the operation falls within the exceptions.
The prohibition also applies when the attack against such objects or their destruction, removal or rendering useless is done by means of cyber operations.See Tallinn Manual 2.0, Rule 141; Geneva Water Hub, The Geneva List of Principles on the Protection of Water Infrastructure. Annex: Principle: Cyber operations, Geneva (November 2021). It has been claimed that although the Internet cannot be considered such an object, cyber infrastructure indispensable to its function and operation, could also qualify within the specially protected objects.Tallinn Manual 2.0, Rule 141, Commentary, para. 5. See in this regard, the national positions of Costa Rica, France, and Norway. See also Sergio Caltagirone, “Industrial cyber attacks: a humanitarian crisis in the making” (Humanitarian Law & Policy, 3 December 2019), specific assessment done by Kubo Mačák. This rule extends beyond the notion of cyber “attacks” and applies to any cyber operation designed to deny the sustenance value to objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population.Tallinn Manual 2.0, Rule 141, Commentary, para. 6; Marco Roscini, Cyber Operations and the Use of Force in International Law (Oxford University Press 2014) 231. The protection of these objects must be understood as extending to deleting or otherwise tampering with data needed for their functioning, in a manner that renders useless objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population.Laurent Gisel, Tilman Rodenhäuser and Knut Dörmann, “Twenty years on: International humanitarian law and the protection of civilians against the effects of cyber operations during armed conflicts”, (2022) 102(913) International Review of the Red Cross, 287–334, 317; Kubo Mačák and Laurent Gisel, “The Legal Constraints of Cyber Operations in Armed Conflicts”, in Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan (ed.) Future Warfare and Technology: Issues and Strategies (ORF and Global Policy Journal 2022) 149. Thus, within this framework whether data constitutes an object or not is immaterial.Michael N. Schmitt, “The Notion of ‘Objects’ During Cyber Operations: A Riposte in Defence of Interpretive and Applicative Precision” (2015) 48 Israel Law Review 81, 107. 
Publicly available national positions that address this issue include:
 (2023), 
 (2024), 
 (2019), 
 (2021).
==National positions==
===Costa Rica (2023)===
===Czech Republic (2024)===
===France (2019)===
===Norway (2021)===
== Appendixes ==
=== See also ===
* International armed conflict
* International humanitarian law (jus in bello)
* Scenario 29: Cyber operations against water and water infrastructure
=== Notes and references ===
=== Bibliography and further reading ===
Category:International armed conflict
Category:International humanitarian law
Category:Legal concepts
Category:Objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population