Thread by @CDroegeICRC

@ICRC reminds parties in Ukraine: When international armed conflict breaks out and people find themselves at the mercy of belligerent States, the #GenevaConventions provide a minimum safeguard to protect their dignity, physical & psychological integrity. icrc.org/en/document/uk…

The #GenevaConventions protect all persons in the power of the belligerents by taking their different situations into account – combatant, civilian, POW, medical personnel, sick, wounded, woman, child, mercenary, persons w/ disabilities…
Here is how 👇
blogs.icrc.org/law-and-policy…

The prisoner of war (POW) regime in the Third Geneva Convention is primarily designed to protect members of the armed forces in the enemy hands. Since they are disarmed and no longer a threat, detaining powers must treat them humanely and in line with their role as combatants.

POW status covers
- members of a State’s military
- all other armed forces fighting on the State’s behalf while fulfilling certain requirements to distinguish themselves from civilians
- Civilian staff, war correspondents, contractors, and others who accompany the armed forces.

POWs are only required to reveal their name, rank and serial number. They cannot be subjected to coercive interrogation, close confinement, imprisoned, or otherwise be treated as having committed a crime.

The doctrine of ‘combatant immunity’ prohibits the prosecution or punishment of #POWs for merely having participated in the conflict, no matter how many soldiers they might have killed or injured. They can, however, be tried for war crimes, while remaining protected as POWs.

The Third Convention requires parties to establish ‘national information bureaus’ to collect and transmit information on POWs to the Central Tracing Agency, a permanent structure of the ICRC. This system helps prevent disappearances and to provide information to their families.

To foster compliance with its rules, the Third Convention grants the ICRC the right to freely go wherever POWs may be found and interview them without witness.

The Fourth #GenevaConvention contains
- protections for the entirety of the population against the dangers of war;
- tailored safeguards for specific groups, including women, children, people w disabilities.
- protections for foreign nationals in the hands of a conflict party.

So-called ‘protected persons’ under the Fourth #GenevaConvention are individuals who are outside the protective reach of their home governments because they are of enemy nationality or are otherwise unable to benefit from the diplomatic representations of their home States.

The Fourth Convention shields protected persons against ills such as arbitrary deprivation of liberty, sentencing w/o fair trial, collective punishment, humiliation, murder. It sets the outermost limit of lawful conduct toward civilian foreigners in a party’s hands, even in war.

Any security measures imposed on protected persons who pose a security must remain in compliance with the Fourth #Geneva Convention’s protections. They also need to comply with applicable human rights law.

Any deprivation of liberty must be exceptional, temporary, & non-punitive. ‘Assigned residence or internment’ is the most severe measure of control that can be imposed against a protected person, only when other measures are inadequate to prevent an imperative threat to security.

Civilian internment is a preventive measure, not a punishment. The Convention provides for procedural safeguards to prevent arbitrary detention and limit the duration of internment or assigned residence to as long as it is necessary to mitigate the threat.

The Fourth #GenevaConvention grants the ICRC the right to go wherever protected persons are. The ICRC’s Central Tracing Agency & States’ national information bureaus have a role to account for people, prevent missing cases and inform their families in a dignified manner.

Anyone who has engaged in hostilities while not meeting the POW criteria of the Third #GenevaConvention is protected as a civilian by the Fourth Convention (assuming its nationality requirements are met). If prosecuted for their actions, they must be granted a fair trial.

All persons in the hands of a party to the conflict, including those who do not meet the nationality requirements of GCIV are covered by essential guarantees under Article 75 of the first Additional Protocol, which is customary law, and applicable human rights law.

@HADurhamICRC @AnselmoFlorence @HangerChristoph @CCardonICRC @JHenckaertsICRC @AnuSaarela @ICRC_ua