Geneva Convention (IV)

CHAPTER VIII

Relations with the Exterior

Art. 105. Immediately upon interning protected persons, the Detaining
Powers shall inform them, the Power to which they owe allegiance and their
Protecting Power of the measures taken for executing the provisions of the
present Chapter. The Detaining Powers shall likewise inform the Parties
concerned of any subsequent modifications of such measures.

Art. 106. As soon as he is interned, or at the latest not more than one
week after his arrival in a place of internment, and likewise in cases of
sickness or transfer to another place of internment or to a hospital, every
internee shall be enabled to send direct to his family, on the one hand,
and to the Central Agency provided for by Article 140, on the other, an
internment card similar, if possible, to the model annexed to the present
Convention, informing his relatives of his detention, address and state of
health. The said cards shall be forwarded as rapidly as possible and may
not be delayed in any way.

Art. 107. Internees shall be allowed to send and receive letters and cards.
If the Detaining Power deems it necessary to limit the number of letters
and cards sent by each internee, the said number shall not be less than two
letters and four cards monthly; these shall be drawn up so as to conform as
closely as possible to the models annexed to the present Convention. If
limitations must be placed on the correspondence addressed to internees,
they may be ordered only by the Power to which such internees owe
allegiance, possibly at the request of the Detaining Power. Such letters
and cards must be conveyed with reasonable despatch; they may not be
delayed or retained for disciplinary reasons.

Internees who have been a long time without news, or who find it impossible
to receive news from their relatives, or to give them news by the ordinary
postal route, as well as those who are at a considerable distance from
their homes, shall be allowed to send telegrams, the charges being paid by
them in the currency at their disposal. They shall likewise benefit by this
provision in cases which are recognized to be urgent.

As a rule, internees’ mail shall be written in their own language. The
Parties to the conflict may authorize correspondence in other languages.

Art. 108. Internees shall be allowed to receive, by post or by any other
means, individual parcels or collective shipments containing in particular
foodstuffs, clothing, medical supplies, as well as books and objects of a
devotional, educational or recreational character which may meet their
needs. Such shipments shall in no way free the Detaining Power from the
obligations imposed upon it by virtue of the present Convention.

Should military necessity require the quantity of such shipments to be
limited, due notice thereof shall be given to the Protecting Power and to
the International Committee of the Red Cross, or to any other organization
giving assistance to the internees and responsible for the forwarding of
such shipments.

The conditions for the sending of individual parcels and collective
shipments shall, if necessary, be the subject of special agreements between
the Powers concerned, which may in no case delay the receipt by the
internees of relief supplies. Parcels of clothing and foodstuffs may not
include books. Medical relief supplies shall, as a rule, be sent in
collective parcels.

Art. 109. In the absence of special agreements between Parties to the
conflict regarding the conditions for the receipt and distribution of
collective relief shipments, the regulations concerning collective relief
which are annexed to the present Convention shall be applied.

The special agreements provided for above shall in no case restrict the
right of Internee Committees to take possession of collective relief
shipments intended for internees, to undertake their distribution and to
dispose of them in the interests of the recipients. Nor shall such
agreements restrict the right of representatives of the Protecting Powers,
the International Committee of the Red Cross, or any other organization
giving assistance to internees and responsible for the forwarding of
collective shipments, to supervise their distribution to the recipients.

Art. 110. An relief shipments for internees shall be exempt from import,
customs and other dues.

All matter sent by mail, including relief parcels sent by parcel post and
remittances of money, addressed from other countries to internees or
despatched by them through the post office, either direct or through the
Information Bureaux provided for in Article 136 and the Central Information
Agency provided for in Article 140, shall be exempt from all postal dues
both in the countries of origin and destination and in intermediate
countries. To this effect, in particular, the exemption provided by the
Universal Postal Convention of 1947 and by the agreements of the Universal
Postal Union in favour of civilians of enemy nationality detained in camps
or civilian prisons, shall be extended to the other interned persons
protected by the present Convention. The countries not signatory to the
above-mentioned agreements shall be bound to grant freedom from charges in
the same circumstances.

The cost of transporting relief shipments which are intended for internees
and which, by reason of their weight or any other cause, cannot be sent
through the post office, shall be borne by the Detaining Power in all the
territories under its control. Other Powers which are Parties to the
present Convention shall bear the cost of transport in their respective
territories.

Costs connected with the transport of such shipments, which are not covered
by the above paragraphs, shall be charged to the senders.

The High Contracting Parties shall endeavour to reduce, so far as possible,
the charges for telegrams sent by internees, or addressed to them.

Art. 111. Should military operations prevent the Powers concerned from
fulfilling their obligation to ensure the conveyance of the mail and relief
shipments provided for in Articles 106, 107, 108 and 113, the Protecting
Powers concerned, the International Committee of the Red Cross or any other
organization duly approved by the Parties to the conflict may undertake to
ensure the conveyance of such shipments by suitable means (rail, motor
vehicles, vessels or aircraft, etc.). For this purpose, the High
Contracting Parties shall endeavour to supply them with such transport, and
to allow its circulation, especially by granting the necessary
safe-conducts.

Such transport may also be used to convey:
(a) correspondence, lists and reports exchanged between the Central
Information Agency referred to in Article 140 and the National
Bureaux referred to in Article 136;
(b) correspondence and reports relating to internees which the Protecting
Powers, the International Committee of the Red Cross or any other
organization assisting the internees exchange either with their own
delegates or with the Parties to the conflict.

These provisions in no way detract from the right of any Party to the
conflict to arrange other means of transport if it should so prefer, nor
preclude the granting of safe-conducts, under mutually agreed conditions,
to such means of transport.

The costs occasioned by the use of such means of transport shall be borne,
in proportion to the importance of the shipments, by the Parties to the
conflict whose nationals are benefited thereby.

Art. 112. The censoring of correspondence addressed to internees or
despatched by them shall be done as quickly as possible.

The examination of consignments intended for internees shall not be carried
out under conditions that will expose the goods contained in them to
deterioration. It shall be done in the presence of the addressee, or of a
fellow-internee duly delegated by him. The delivery to internees of
individual or collective consignments shall not be delayed under the
pretext of difficulties of censorship.

Any prohibition of correspondence ordered by the Parties to the conflict
either for military or political reasons, shall be only temporary and its
duration shall be as short as possible.

Author: international