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8.16 CRIMINAL PROCEDURE AND PUNISHMENTThe passing of sentences and the carrying out of executions without previous judgmentpronounced by a regularly constituted court affording all the judicial guarantees that arerecognized as indispensable by civilized peoples are prohibited. 116The specific rules addressed in this section may be understood as examples of suchguarantees. 1178.16.1 No Private Rights Created by This Section in Particular. As with all other sectionsof this manual, Section 8.16 does not create any private rights. 118 The competent prosecutingauthorities shall ensure that the requirements reflected in this section are met.8.16.2 General Limits on Punishments.8.16.2.1 Individual Penal Responsibility and No Collective Punishment. No oneshall be convicted of an offense except on the basis of individual penal responsibility. 119Collective punishments are prohibited. Collective punishments have been specificallyprohibited with respect to POWs, protected persons under the GC, and inhabitants of occupiedterritory, and also in connection with non-international armed conflict. 120 This prohibitionincludes penalties of any kind inflicted upon persons or groups of persons for acts that thesepersons have not committed, including administrative penalties. 121 Punishment on the basis of116 See GWS art. 3 (prohibiting with respect to persons taking no active part in the hostilities “the passing ofsentences and the carrying out of executions without previous judgment pronounced by a regularly constituted courtaffording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples.”); GWS-SEA art. 3(same); GPW art. 3 (same); GC art. 3 (same). Consider AP I art. 75(4) (“No sentence may be passed and no penaltymay be executed on a person found guilty of a penal offence related to the armed conflict except pursuant to aconviction pronounced by an impartial and regularly constituted court respecting the generally recognized principlesof regular judicial procedure, which include the following:”); AP II art. 6(2) (“No sentence shall be passed and nopenalty shall be executed on a person found guilty of an offence except pursuant to a conviction pronounced by acourt offering the essential guarantees of independence and impartiality.”).117 ICRC AP COMMENTARY 878 (3084) (“Article 3 [of the 1949 Geneva Conventions] relies on the ‘judicialguarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples’, while Article 75 [of AP I] rightly spells outthese guarantees. Thus this article, and to an even greater extent, Article 6 of Protocol II (Penal prosecutions), givesvaluable indications to help explain the terms of Article 3 on guarantees.”).118 Refer to § 1.1.1 (Purpose).119 Consider AP I art. 75(4)(a) (“No one shall be convicted of an offence except on the basis of individual penalresponsibility;”); AP II art. 6(2)(b) (“No one shall be convicted of an offence except on the basis of individual penalresponsibility;”).120 Refer to § 9.26.6 (Prohibited Penalties); § 10.5.3.2 (Collective Penalties and Measures of Intimidation orTerrorism); § 11.6.2.2 (Prohibition Against General Penalties in Occupied Territory); § 17.6.7 (Prohibition onCollective Punishment).121 GC COMMENTARY 225 (“This paragraph then lays a prohibition on collective penalties. This does not refer topunishments inflicted under penal law, i.e. sentences pronounced by a court after due process of law, but penalties ofany kind inflicted on persons or entire groups of persons, in defiance of the most elementary principles of humanity,for acts that these persons have not committed.”).508