Geneva Convention (IV) 8

Geneva Convention (IV)

 

PART III
STATUS AND TREATMENT OF PROTECTED PERSONS

SECTION I

Provisions Common to the Territories
of the Parties to the Conflict
and to Occupied Territories

Art. 27. Protected persons are entitled, in all circumstances, to respect
for their persons, their honour, their family rights, their religious
convictions and practices, and their manners and customs. They shall at all
times be humanely treated, and shall be protected especially against all
acts of violence or threats thereof and against insults and public
curiosity.

Women shall be especially protected against any attack on their honour, in
particular against rape, enforced prostitutiOn, or any form of indecent
assault.

Without prejudice to the provisions relating to their state of health, age
and sex, all protected persons shall be treated with the same consideration
by the Party to the conflict in whose power they are, without any adverse
distinction based, in particular, on race, religion or political opinion.

However, the Parties to the conflict may take such measures of control and
security in regard to protected persons as may be necessary as a result of
the war.

Art. 28. The presence of a protected person may not be used to render
certain points or areas immune from military operations.

Art. 29. The Party to the conflict in whose hands protected persons may be,
is responsible for the treatment accorded to them by its agents,
irrespective of any individual responsibility which may be incurred.

Art. 30. Protected persons shall have every facility for making application
to the Protecting Powers, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the
National Red Cross (Red Crescent, Red Lion and Sun) Society of the country
where they may be, as well as to any organization that might assist them.

These several organizations shall be granted all facilities for that
purpose by the authorities, within the bounds set by military or security
considerations.

Apart from the visits of the delegates of the Protecting Powers and of the
International Committee of the Red Cross, provided for by Article 143, the
Detaining or Occupying Powers shall facilitate, as much as possible, visits
to protected persons by the representatives of other organizations whose
object is to give spiritual aid or material relief to such persons.

Art. 31. No physical or moral coercion shall be exercised against protected
persons, in particular to obtain information from them or from third
parties.

Art. 32. The High Contracting Parties specifically agree that each of them
is prohibited from taking any measure of such a character as to cause the
physical suffering or extermination of protected persons in their hands.
This prohibition applies not only to murder, torture, corporal punishments,
mutilation and medical or scientific experiments not necessitated by the
medical treatment of a protected person, but also to any other measures of
brutality whether applied by civilian or military agents.

Art. 33. No protected person may be punished for an offence he or she has
not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of
intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited.

Pillage is prohibited.

Reprisals against protected persons and their property are prohibited.

Art. 34. The taking of hostages is prohibited.

SECTION II

Aliens in the Territory
of a Party to the Conflict

Art. 35. All protected persons who may desire to leave the territory at the
outset of, or during a conflict, shall be entitled to do so, unless their
departure is contrary to the national interests of the State. The
applications of such persons to leave shall be decided in accordance with
regularly established procedures and the decision shall be taken as rapidly
as possible. Those persons permitted to leave may provide themselves with
the necessary funds for their journey and take with them a reasonable
amount of their effects and articles of personal use.

If any such person is refused permission to leave the territory, he shall
be entitled to have refusal reconsidered, as soon as possible by an
appropriate court or administrative board designated by the Detaining Power
for that purpose.

Upon request, representatives of the Protecting Power shall, unless reasons
of security prevent it, or the persons concerned object, be furnished with
the reasons for refusal of any request for permission to leave the
territory and be given, as expeditiously as possible, the names of all
persons who have been denied permission to leave.

Art. 36. Departures permitted under the foregoing Article shall be carried
out in satisfactory conditions as regards safety, hygiene, sanitation and
food. All costs in connection therewith, from the point of exit in the
territory of the Detaining Power, shall be borne by the country of
destination, or, in the case of accommodation in a neutral country, by the
Power whose nationals are benefited. The practical details of such
movements may, if necessary, be settled by special agreements between the
Powers concerned.

The foregoing shall not prejudice such special agreements as may be
concluded between Parties to the conflict concerning the exchange and
repatriation of their nationals in enemy hands.

Art. 37. Protected persons who are confined pending proceedings or subject
to a sentence involving loss of liberty, shall during their confinement be
humanely treated.

As soon as they are released, they may ask to leave the territory in
conformity with the foregoing Articles.

Art. 38. With the exception of special measures authorized by the present
Convention, in particularly by Article 27 and 41 thereof, the situation of
protected persons shall continue to be regulated, in principle, by the
provisions concerning aliens in time of peace. In any case, the following
rights shall be granted to them:
(1) they shall be enabled to receive the individual or collective relief
that may be sent to them.
(2) they shall, if their state of health so requires, receive medical
attention and hospital treatment to the same extent as the nationals
of the State concerned.
(3) they shall be allowed to practise their religion and to receive
spiritual assistance from ministers of their faith.
(4) if they reside in an area particularly exposed to the dangers of war,
they shall be authorized to move from that area to the same extent as
the nationals of the State concerned.
(5) children under fifteen years, pregnant women and mothers of children
under seven years shall benefit by any preferential treatment to the
same extent as the nationals of the State concerned.

Art. 39. Protected persons who, as a result of the war, have lost their
gainful employment, shall be granted the opportunity to find paid
employment. That opportunity shall, subject to security considerations and
to the provisions of Article 40, be equal to that enjoyed by the nationals
of the Power in whose territory they are.

Where a Party to the conflict applies to a protected person methods of
control which result in his being unable to support himself, and especially
if such a person is prevented for reasons of security from finding paid
employment on reasonable conditions, the said Party shall ensure his
support and that of his dependents.

Protected persons may in any case receive allowances from their home
country, the Protecting Power, or the relief societies referred to in
Article 30.

Art. 40. Protected persons may be compelled to work only to the same extent
as nationals of the Party to the conflict in whose territory they are.

If protected persons are of enemy nationality, they may only be compelled
to do work which is normally necessary to ensure the feeding, sheltering,
clothing, transport and health of human beings and which is not directly
related to the conduct of military operations.

In the cases mentioned in the two preceding paragraphs, protected persons
compelled to work shall have the benefit of the same working conditions and
of the same safeguards as national workers in particular as regards wages,
hours of labour, clothing and equipment, previous training and compensation
for occupational accidents and diseases.

If the above provisions are infringed, protected persons shall be allowed
to exercise their right of complaint in accordance with Article 30.

Art. 41. Should the Power, in whose hands protected persons may be,
consider the measures of control mentioned in the present Convention to be
inadequate, it may not have recourse to any other measure of control more
severe than that of assigned residence or internment, in accordance with
the provisions of Articles 42 and 43.

In applying the provisions of Article 39, second paragraph, to the cases of
persons required to leave their usual places of residence by virtue of a
decision placing them in assigned residence, by virtue of a decision
placing them in assigned residence, elsewhere, the Detaining Power shall be
guided as closely as possible by the standards of welfare set forth in Part
III, Section IV of this Convention.

Art. 42. The internment or placing in assigned residence of protected
persons may be ordered only if the security of the Detaining Power makes it
absolutely necessary.

If any person, acting through the representatives of the Protecting Power,
voluntarily demands internment, and if his situation renders this step
necessary, he shall be interned by the Power in whose hands he may be.

Art. 43. Any protected person who has been interned or placed in assigned
residence shall be entitled to have such action reconsidered as soon as
possible by an appropriate court or administrative board designated by the
Detaining Power for that purpose. If the internment or placing in assigned
residence is maintained, the court or administrative board shall
periodically, and at least twice yearly, give consideration to his or her
case, with a view to the favourable amendment of the initial decision, if
circumstances permit.

Unless the protected persons concerned object, the Detaining Power shall,
as rapidly as possible, give the Protecting Power the names of any
protected persons who have been interned or subjected to assigned
residence, or who have been released from internment or assigned residence.
The decisions of the courts or boards mentioned in the first paragraph of
the present Article shall also, subject to the same conditions, be notified
as rapidly as possible to the Protecting Power.

Art. 44. In applying the measures of control mentioned in the present
Convention, the Detaining Power shall not treat as enemy aliens exclusively
on the basis of their nationality de jure of an enemy State, Refugees who
do not, in fact, enjoy the protection of any government.

Art. 45. Protected persons shall not be transferred to a Power which is not
a party to the Convention.

This provision shall in no way constitute an obstacle to the repatriation
of protected persons, or to their return to their country of residence
after the cessation of hostilities.

Protected persons may be transferred by the Detaining Power only to a Power
which is a party to the present Convention and after the Detaining Power
has satisfied itself of the willingness and ability of such transferee
Power to apply the present Convention. If protected persons are transferred
under such circumstances, responsibility for the application of the present
Convention rests on the Power accepting them, while they are in its
custody. Nevertheless, if that Power fails to carry out the provisions of
the present Convention in any important respect, the Power by which the
protected persons were transferred shall, upon being so notified by the
Protecting Power, take effective measures to correct the situation or shall
request the return of the protected persons. Such request must be complied
with.

In no circumstances shall a protected person be transferred to a country
where he or she may have reason to fear persecution for his or her
political opinions or religious beliefs.

The provisions of this Article do not constitute an obstacle to the
extradition, in pursuance of extradition Treaties concluded before the
outbreak of hostilities, of protected persons accused of offences against
ordinary criminal law.

Art. 46. In so far as they have not been previously withdrawn, restrictive
measures taken regarding protected persons shall be cancelled as soon as
possible after the close of hostilities.

Restrictive measures affecting their property shall be cancelled, in
accordance with the law of the Detaining Power, as soon as possible after
the close of hostilities.

 

Conclusion

Notes

See Also

References and Further Reading

About the Author/s and Reviewer/s

Author: international


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