The Geneva Convention on POWs

The current Geneva Convention on the treatment of prisoners of war was adopted on August 12, 1949, at a conference in Geneva on the protection of war victims and entered into force on October 21, 1950.

A series of international treaties concluded in Geneva on ameliorating the effects of war on soldiers and civilians date back to 1864 and have been closely associated with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

The ICRC, which avows strict neutrality, said yesterday that Iraqi television pictures purporting to show American prisoners of war would be a violation of the Geneva Convention, if true.

Iraqi Defence Minister Sultan Hashim Ahmad subsequently told a Baghdad news conference Iraq would treat prisoners of war in accordance with the Geneva Convention.

The relevant sections of the convention read:

  • ARTICLE 13: Prisoners of war must at all times be humanely treated. Any unlawful act or omission by the Detaining Power causing death or seriously endangering the health of a prisoner of war in its custody is prohibited, and will be regarded as a serious breach of the present Convention. In particular, no prisoner of war may be subjected to physical mutilation or to medical or scientific experiments of any kind which are not justified by the medical, dental or hospital treatment of the prisoners concerned and carried out in his interest.

    Likewise, prisoners of war must at all times be protected, particularly against acts of violence or intimidation and against insults and public curiosity.

    Measures of reprisal against prisoners of war are prohibited.

  • ARTICLE 14: Prisoners of war are entitled in all circumstances to respect for the persons and their honour. Women shall be treated with all the regard due to their sex and shall in all cases benefit by treatment as favourable as that granted to men. Prisoners of war shall retain the full civil capacity which they enjoyed at the time of their capture, The Detaining Power may not restrict the exercise, either within or without its own territory, of the rights such capacity confers except in so far as the captivity requires.

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