Convention (X) for the Adaption to Maritime War of the Principles of the Geneva Convention

 

ARTICLE 13

If sick, wounded, or shipwrecked persons are taken on board a
neutral vessel of war, every possible precaution must be taken that
they can not again take part in the operations of the war.

ARTICLE 14

The shipwrecked, wounded, or sick of one of the belligerents who
fall into the power of the other are prisoners of war. The captor
must decide, according to circumstances, whether to keep them, or to
send them to a port of his own country , to a neutral port, or even
to an enemy port. In this last case, prisoners thus repatriated
cannot serve again while the war lasts.

ARTICLE 15

The shipwrecked, sick, or wounded, who are landed at a neutral sort with
the consent of the local authorities, must, unless an arrangement is made
to the contrary between the neutral State and the belligerent States, be
guarded by the neutral State so that they can not again take part in the
operations of the war.

The expenses of caring for them in hospital. and interning them shall be
borne by the State to which the shipwrecked, sick, or wounded persons
belong.

ARTICLE 16

After every engagement, the two belligerents, so far as military interests
permit, shall take steps to look for the shipwrecked, sick, and wounded,
and to protect them, as well as the dead, against pillage and ill
treatment.

They shall see that the burial, whether by land or sea, or cremation of
the dead shall be preceded by a careful examination of the corpse.

ARTICLE 17

Each belligerent shall send, as early as possible, to the authorities of
their country , navy, or army the military marks or documents of identity
found on the dead and a list of the names of the sick and wounded gathered
up by him.

The belligerents shall keep each other informed as to internments and
transfers as well as to the admissions into hospital and deaths which have
occurred among the sick and wounded in their hands. They shall collect all
the objects of personal use, valuables, letters, &c., which are found in
the captured ships, or which have been left by the sick or wounded who
died in hospital, in order to have them forwarded to the persons concerned
by the authorities of their own country.

ARTICLE 18

The provisions of the present Convention do not apply except between
Contracting Powers, and only if all the belligerents are parties to the
Convention.

ARTICLE 19

The commanders in chief of the belligerent fleets must arrange for the
details of carrying out the preceding articles, as well as for cases not
covered thereby, in accordance with the instructions of their respective
Governments and in conformity with the general principles of the present
Convention.

ARTICLE 20

The Signatory Powers shall take the necessary measures to instruct their
naval forces, and especially the protected personnel, in the provisions of
the present Convention, and to bring them to the knowledge of the
population.

ARTICLE 21

The Signatory Powers likewise undertake to enact or to propose to their
legislatures, if their criminal laws are inadequate, the measures
necessary for checking in time of war individual acts of pillage and ill-
treatment of the sick and wounded of the Navy as well as for punishing, as
an unjustifiable adoption of naval or military marks, the unauthorized use
of the distinctive marks mentioned in Article 5 by vessels not protected
by the present Convention.

They will communicate to each other, through the Netherlands Government,
the enactments for preventing such acts at the latest within five years of
the ratification of the present Convention.

ARTICLE 22

In the case of operations of war between the land and the sea forces of
belligerents, the provisions of the present Convention do not apply except
to the forces actually embarked.

ARTICLE 23

The present Convention shall be ratified as soon as possible.

The ratifications shall be deposited at The Hague.

The first deposit of ratifications shall be recorded in a proces-verbal
signed by the Representatives of the Powers taking part therein and by the
Netherlands Minister for Foreign Affairs.

Subsequent deposits of ratifications shall be made by means of a written
notification addressed to the Netherlands Government and accompanied by
the instrument of ratification.

A certified copy of the proces-verbal relative to the first deposit of
ratifications, of the notifications mentioned in the preceding paragraph,
as well as of the instruments of ratification, shall be at once sent by
the Netherlands Government through the diplomatic channel to the Powers
invited to the Second Peace Conference, as well as to the other Powers
which shall have adhered to the Convention. In the cases contemplated in
the preceding paragraph the said Government shall inform them at the same
time of the (late on which it received the notification.

ARTICLE 24

Non-signatory Powers which have accepted the Geneva Convention of the 6th
July, 1906, may adhere to the present Convention.

A Power which desires to adhere notifies its intention to the Netherlands
Government in writing, forwarding to it the act of adherence, which shall
be deposited in the archives of the said Government.

The said Government shall at once transmit to all the other Powers a duly
certified copy of the notification as well as of the act of adherence
mentioning the date on which it received the notification.

ARTICLE 25

The present Convention, duly ratified, shall replace as between
Contracting Powers, the Convention of the 29th July, 1899, for the
adaptation to maritime warfare of the principles of the Geneva Convention.

The Convention of 1899 remains in force as between the Powers which signed
it but which do not also ratify the present Convention.

ARTICLE 26

The present Convention shall take effect in the case of the Powers which
were parties to the first deposit of ratifications, sixty days after the
date of the proces-verbal of this deposit, and, in the case of the Powers
which ratify subsequently or which adhere sixty days after the
notification of their ratification or of their adherence has been received
by the Netherlands Government.

ARTICLE 27

In the event of one of the Contracting ‘Powers wishing to denounce the
present Convention, the denunciation shall be notified in writing to the
Netherlands Government, which shall at once communicate a duly certified
copy of the notification to all the other Powers, informing them at the
same time of the date on which it was received.

The denunciation shall have effect only in regard to the notifying Power,
and one year after the notification has reached the Netherlands
Government.

ARTICLE 28

A register kept by the Netherlands Ministry for Foreign Affairs shall give
the date of the deposit of ratifications made in virtue of Article 23,
paragraphs 3 and 4, as well as the date on which the notifications of
adherence (Article 24, paragraph 2) or of denunciation (Article 27,
paragraph 1 ) have been received.

Each Contracting Power is entitled to have access to this register and to
be supplied with duly certified extracts from it.

In faith whereof the Plenipotentiaries have appended their signatures to
the present Convention.

Done at The Hague, the 18th October, 1907, in a single copy, which shall
remain deposited m the archives of the Netherlands Government, and duly
certified copies of which shall be sent, through the diplomatic channel,
to the Powers which have been invited to the Second Peace Conference.

And whereas the said Convention has been duly ratified by the Government
of the United States of America, by and with the advice and consent of the
Senate thereof, and by the Governments of Germany, Austria-Hungary, China,
Denmark, Mexico. the Netherlands, Russia, Bolivia, and Salvador, and the
ratifications of the said Governments were, under the provisions of
Article 23 of the said Convention, deposited by their respective
plenipotentiaries with the Netherlands Government on November 27, 1909;

Author: international