Source: http://www.csamerican.com/Doc.asp?doc=Geneva4d
Timestamp: 2018-09-25 15:19:46
Document Index: 709600746

Matched Legal Cases: ['Art. 94', 'Art. 118', 'Art. 129', 'Art. 147', 'Art. 5', 'Art. 1']

Common Sense Americanism - The Geneva Conventions on Civilians
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Concerning the Treatment of Civilians
To-date, there have actually been four separate Geneva Conventions dealing with actions taken in war. The first was held in 1864, and dealt with the most pressing issue up until that time: the care of soldiers lying wounded on the battlefield. Concern for the fate of injured troops was driven home in a poignant account of the 1859 Battle of Solferino in northern Italy. Almost concurrently, the United States Army, engaged in its own Civil War, was pioneering new methods for recovering and treating the wounded, rather than leaving them to the whims of fortune (or occasional heroic nurses) as had been the case for millennia.
The second Convention, 1868, extended the requirements of Geneva I to sailors on the seas. Geneva III, signed in 1929 in response to the depredations of World War I, produced the rules for taking and holding prisoners of war that have become familiar to most -- including the requirement that a POW supply only his name, rank and serial number. (Date of birth was added by the next Convention.)
In 1949, the fourth Convention rewrote and expanded the work of the first three, producing a much lengthier document tuned to the realities of modern warfare. In addition, the ravages of World War II encouraged Geneva IV to add a lengthy set of standards for the treatment of civilians in a war zone, and for the internment of noncombatants. It is this final part of Geneva IV -- a section very similar to that governing the treatment of prisoners from Geneva III -- which is reproduced here.
Unfortunately, it seems, the longer and more complex documents like these become, the more they are ignored by belligerents who see their self-interest as lying elsewhere than reasonable treatment of noncombatants. We also see the opposite, where complaints of unreasonable treatment of dangerous guerrillas posing as civilians becomes a political truncheon.
Geneva IV was signed by 176 nations -- including most of the worst offenders -- and ultimately ratified by 61, the United States among them.
Annexes: Hospitals, Safety Zones, Civilian Relief
CONVENTION IV
Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, 12 August 1949.
(a) wounded and sick combatants or non-combatants; (b) civilian persons who take no part in hostilities, and who, while they reside in the zones, perform no work of a military character.
(a) that the consignments may be diverted from their destination, (b) that the control may not be effective, or (c) that a definite advantage may accrue to the military efforts or economy of the enemy through the substitution of the above-mentioned consignments for goods which would otherwise be provided or produced by the enemy or through the release of such material, services or facilities as would otherwise be required for the production of such goods.
(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.
(a) recognized National Red Cross (Red Crescent, Red Lion and Sun) Societies shall be able to pursue their activities in accordance with Red Cross principles, as defined by the International Red Cross Conferences. Other relief societies shall be permitted to continue their humanitarian activities under similar conditions; (b) the Occupying Power may not require any changes in the personnel or structure of these societies, which would prejudice the aforesaid activities.
The notification to the Protecting Power, as provided for in the second paragraph above, shall be sent immediately, and shall in any case reach the Protecting Power three weeks before the date of the first hearing. Unless, at the opening of the trial, evidence is submitted that the provisions of this Article are fully complied with, the trial shall not proceed. The notification shall include the following particulars: (a) description of the accused; (b) place of residence or detention; (c) specification of the charge or charges (with mention of the penal provisions under which it is brought); (d) designation of the court which will hear the case; (e) place and date of the first hearing.
Art. 94. The Detaining Power shall encourage intellectual, educational and recreational pursuits, sports and games amongst internees, whilst leaving them free to take part in them or not. It shall take all practicable measures to ensure the exercise thereof, in particular by providing suitable premises.
Furthermore, internees may receive allowances from the Power to which they owe allegiance, the Protecting Powers, the organizations which may assist them, or their families, as well as the income on their property in accordance with the law of the Detaining Power. The amount of allowances granted by the Power to which they owe allegiance shall be the same for each category of internees (infirm, sick, pregnant women, etc.) but may not be allocated by that Power or distributed by the Detaining Power on the basis of discriminations between internees which are prohibited by Article 27 of the present Convention.
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.
(1) a fine which shall not exceed 50 per cent of the wages which the internee would otherwise receive under the provisions of Article 95 during a period of not more than thirty days. (2) discontinuance of privileges granted over and above the treatment provided for by the present Convention (3) fatigue duties, not exceeding two hours daily, in connection with the maintenance of the place of internment. (4) confinement.
Art. 118, paragraph 3, notwithstanding, internees punished as a result of escape or attempt to escape, may be subjected to special surveillance, on condition that such surveillance does not affect the state of their health, that it is exercised in a place of internment and that it does not entail the abolition of any of the safeguards granted by the present Convention.
The premises in which disciplinary punishments are undergone shall conform to sanitary requirements: they shall in particular be provided with adequate bedding. Internees undergoing punishment shall be enabled to keep themselves in a state of cleanliness.
Art. 129. The wills of internees shall be received for safe-keeping by the responsible authorities; and if the event of the death of an internee his will shall be transmitted without delay to a person whom he has previously designated. Deaths of internees shall be certified in every case by a doctor, and a death certificate shall be made out, showing the causes of death and the conditions under which it occurred.
Art. 147. Grave breaches to which the preceding Article relates shall be those involving any of the following acts, if committed against persons or property protected by the present Convention: willful killing, torture or inhuman treatment, including biological experiments, willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health, unlawful deportation or transfer or unlawful confinement of a protected person, compelling a protected person to serve in the forces of a hostile Power, or willfully depriving a protected person of the rights of fair and regular trial prescribed in the present Convention, taking of hostages and extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly.
(a) they shall comprise only a small part of the territory governed by the Power which has established them (b) they shall be thinly populated in relation to the possibilities of accommodation (c) they shall be far removed and free from all military objectives, or large industrial or administrative establishments (d) they shall not be situated in areas which, according to every probability, may become important for the conduct of the war.
Art. 5. Hospital and safety zones shall be subject to the following obligations: (a) the lines of communication and means of transport which they possess shall not be used for the transport of military personnel or material, even in transit (b) they shall in no case be defended by military means.
Art. 1. The Internee Committees shall be allowed to distribute collective relief shipments for which they are responsible to all internees who are dependent for administration on the said Committee's place of internment, including those internees who are in hospitals, or in prison or other penitentiary establishments.