Archive/File: imt/nca/nca-06/nca-06-3738-ps.03 Last-Modified: 1999/11/17 TITLE IV. TERMINATION OF CAPTIVITY SECTION I-DIRECT REPATRIATION AND HOSPITALIZATION IN A NEUTRAL COUNTRY ARTICLE 68 Belligerents are bound to send back to their own country, regardless of rank or number, seriously sick and seriously injured prisoners of war, after having brought them to a condition where they can be transported. Agreements between belligerents shall accordingly settle as soon as possible the cases of invalidity or of sickness, entailing direct repatriation, as well as the cases entailing possible hospitalization in a neutral country. While awaiting the conclusion [Page 617] of these agreements, belligerents may have reference to the model agreement annexed, for documentary purposes, to the present Convention. ARTICLE 69 Upon the outbreak of hostilities, belligerents shall come to an agreement to name mixed medical commissions. These commissions shall be composed of three members, two of them belonging to a neutral country and one appointed by the detaining Power; one of the physicians of the neutral country shall preside. These mixed medical commissions shall proceed to the examination of sick or wounded prisoners and shall make all due decisions regarding them. Decisions of these commissions shall be by majority and carried out with the least possible delay. ARTICLE 70 Besides those who are designated by the camp physician, the following prisoners of war shall be inspected by the mixed medical commission mentioned in Article 69, with a view to their direct repatriation or their hospitalization in a neutral country: a. Prisoners who make such a request directly of the camp physician; b. Prisoners who are presented by the agents provided for in Article 43, acting on their own initiative or at the request of the prisoners themselves; c. Prisoners who have been proposed by the Power in whose armies they have served or by an aid society duly recognized and authorized by that Power. ARTICLE 71 Prisoners of war who are victims of accidents in connection with work, except those voluntarily injured, shall enjoy the benefit of the same provisions, as far as repatriation or possible hospitalization in a neutral country are concerned. ARTICLE 72 Throughout the duration of hostilities and for humane considerations, belligerents may conclude agreements with a view to the direet repatriation or hospitalization in a neutral country of able-bodied prisoners of war who have undergone a long period of captivity. ARTICLE 73 The expenses of repatriation or of transportation to a neutral country of prisoners of war shall be borne, from the frontiers of the detaining Power, by the Power in whose armies the prisoners have served. [Page 618] ARTICLE 74 No repatriated person may be utilized in active military service. SECTION II-RELEASE AND REPATRIATION UPON CESSATION OF HOSTILITIES ARTICLE 75 When belligerents conclude a convention of armistice, they must, in principle, have appear therein stipulations regarding the repatriation of prisoners of war. If it has not been possible to insert stipulations in this regard in such convention, belligerents shall nevertheless come to ail agreement ill this regard as soon as possible. In any case, repatriation of prisoners shall be effected with the least possible delay after the conclusion of peace. Prisoners of war against whom a penal prosecution might be pending for a crime or an offense of municipal law may, however, be detained until the end of the proceedings and, if necessary, until the expiration of the punishment. The same shall be true of those sentenced for a crime or offense of municipal law. On agreement between the belligerents, commissions may be established for the purpose of searching for dispersed prisoners and assuring their repatriation. TITLE V. DEATH OF PRISONERS OF WAR ARTICLE 76 Wills of prisoners of war shall be received and drawn up in the same way as for soldiers of the national army. The same rules shall be observed regarding death certificates. Belligerents shall see that prisoners of war dying ill captivity are honorably buried and that the graves bear all due information, are respected and properly maintained. TITLE VI. BUREAUS OF RELIEF AND INFORMATION CONCERNING PRISONERS OF WAR ARTICLE 77 Upon the outbreak of hostilities, each of the belligerent Powers, as well as the neutral Powers which have received belligerents, shall institute an official information bureau for prisoners of war who are within their territory. Within the shortest possible period, each of the belligerent Powers shall inform its information bureau of every capture of prisoners effected by its armies, giving it all the information regarding identity which it has, allowing it quickly to advise the [Page 619] families concerned, and informing it of the official addresses to which families may write to prisoners. The information bureau shall immediately forward all this information to the interested Powers, through the intervention, on one hand, of the protecting Powers and, on the other, of the central agency provided for in Article 79. The information burear, being charged with replying to all inquiries about prisoners of war, shall receive from the various services concerned full information respeting internments and transfers, releases on parole, repatriations, escapes, stays in hospitals, deaths, as well as other information necessary to enable it to make out and keep up to date and individual return for each prisoner of war. The bureau shall state in this return, in so far as is possible and dubject to the provisions of Article 5: the regimental number, given names and surname, date and place of birth, rank and unit of the interested party, the given name of the father and the name of the mother, the address of the person to be advised in case of accident, wounds, date and place of capture, internment, wounding and death, as well as any other important information. Weekly lists containing all new information likely to facilitate the identification of each prisoner shall be transmitted to the interested Powers. At the conclusion of peace the individual return of the prisoner of war shall be delivered to the Power which he served. The infomration bureau shall further be bound to receive all objects of personal use, valuables, letters, pay vouchers, indentification marks, etc., which are left by prisoners of war who have been repatriated, released on parole, escaped or died, and to transmit them to the countries interested. ARTICLE 78 Relief societies for prisoners of war, which are properly constituted in accordance with the laws of their country and with the object of serving as the channel for charitable effort, shall receive from the belligerents, for themselves and their duly accredited agents, every facility for the efficient performance of their humane task within the bounds imposed by military necessities. Agents of these societies may be admitted to the camps for the purpose of distributing relief, as also to the halting places of repatriated prisoners, if furnished with a personal permit by the military authorities, and on giving an undertaking in writing to comply with all measures of order and police which the latter may issue. [Page 620] ARTICLE 79 A central information agency for prisoners of war shall be created in a neutral country. The International Committee of the Red Cross shall propose the organization of such an agency to the interested Powers, if it considers it necessary. The function of that agency shall be to centralize all information respecting prisoners, which it may obtain through official or private channels; it shall transmit it as quickly as possible to the country of origin of the prisoners or to the Power which they have served. These provisions must not be interpreted as restricting the humanitarian activity of the International Committee of the Red Cross. ARTICLE 80 Information bureaus shall enjoy the privilege of free postage on postal matter, as well as all exemptions provided in Article 38. TITLE VII. APPLICATION OF THE CONVENTION TO CERTAIN CLASSES OF CIVILIANS ARTICLE 81 Individuals who follow armed forces without directly belonging thereto, such as newspaper correspondents and reporters, sutlers, contractors, who fall into the enemy's hands and whom the latter thinks expedient to detain, shall be entitled to be treated as prisoners of war, provided they are in possession of a certificate from the military authorities of the armed forces which they were accompanying. TITLE VIII. EXECUTION OF THE CONVENTION SECTION I-GENERAL PROVISIONS ARTICLE 82 The provisions of the present Convention must be respected by the High Contracting Parties under all circumstances. In case, in time of war, one of the belligerents is not a part to the Convention, its provisions shall nevertheless remain in force as between the belligerents who are parties thereto. ARTICLE 83 The High Contracting Parties reserve the right to conclude special conventions on all questions relative to prisoners of war, on which it seems to them expedient to have particular regulations. [Page 621] Prisoners of war shall receive the benefit of these agreements until the completion of repatriation, except in the case of express , stipulations to the contrary contained in the above-mentioned agreements or in later agreements, or also except in the case of more favorable measures taken by one or the other of the belligerent powers respecting the prisoners which they hold. In order to assure the reciprocal application of the stipulations of the present Convention, and to facilitate the conclusion of the Ispecial conventions provided for above, belligerents may, upon the commencement of hostilities, authorize meetings of representatives of the respective authorities charged with the administration of prisoners of war. ARTICLE 84 The text of the present Convention and of the special conventions provided for in the foregoing article, shall be posted, whereever possible in the native language of the prisoners of war., in places where it may be consulted by all the prisoners. The text of these conventions shall be communicated to prisoners who find it impossible to get the information from the posted text, upon their request. ARTICLE 85 The High Contracting Parties shall communicate to one another through the Swiss Federal Council, the official translations of the present convention, as well as of the laws and regulations which they may come to adopt to assure the application of the present Convention. SECTION II.-ORGANIZATION OF CONTROL ARTICLE 86 The High Contracting Parties recognize that the regular application of the present Convention will find a guaranty in the possibility of collaboration of the protecting Powers charged with safeguarding the interests of belligerents; in this respect, the protecting Powers may, besides their diplomatic personnel, appoint delegates from among their own nationals or from among the nationals of other neutral Powers. These delegates must be subject to the approval of the belligerent near which they exercise their Mission. Representatives of the protecting Power or its accepted delegates shall be permitted to go to any place, without exception, where prisoners of war are interned. They shall have access to all places occupied by prisoners and may interview them, as a general rule without witnesses, personally or through interpreters. [Page 622] Belligerents snaii so iar as Possible facilitate the task of representatives or accepted delegates of the protecting Power. The military authorities shall be informed of their visit. Belligerents may come to an agreement to allow persons of the same nationality as the prisoners to be permitted to take part in inspection trips. ARTICLE 87 In case of disagreement between the belligerents as to the application of provisions of the present Convention, the protecting Powers must, in so far as possible, lend their good offices for the purpose of settling the difference. For this purpose, each of the protecting Powers may, in particular, suggest to the interested belligerents a meeting of representatives thereof, possibly upon a neutral territory suitably chosen. Belligerents shall be bound to accede to proposals in this sense which are made to them. The protecting Power may, if occasion arises, submit for the approval of the Powers concerned a person belonging to a neutral Power or a person delegated by the International Committee of the Red Cross, who shall be summoned to take part in this meeting. ARTICLE 88 The foregoing provisions are not an obstacle to the humanitarian activity which the International Committee of the Red Cross may use for the protection of prisoners of war, with the consent of the interested belligerents. SECTION III-FINAL PROVISIONS ARTICLE 89 In the relations between Powers bound by the Hague Convention respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land, whether it is a question of that of July 29, 1899, or that of October 18, 1907, and who participate in the present Convention, this latter shall complete Chapter II of the Regulations annexed to the said Hague Conventions. ARTICLE 90 The present Convention, which will bear this day's date, may be signed up to February 1, 1930, on behalf of all the countries represented at the Conference which opened at Geneva July 1, 1929. ARTICLE 91 The present Convention shall be ratified as soon as possible. The ratifications shall be deposited at Berne. [Page 623] A record of the deposit of each instrument of ratification shall be prepared, a duly certified copy of which shall be forwarded by the Swiss Federal Council to the Governments of all the countries on whose behalf the Convention has been signed or notification of adherence made. ARTICLE 92 The present Convention shall become effective six months after the deposit of at least two instruments of ratification. Subsequently, it shall become effective for each High Contracting Party six months after the deposit of its instrument of ratification. ARTICLE 93 From the date on which it becomes effective, the present Convention shall be open for adherences given on behalf of any country in whose name this Convention was not signed. ARTICLE 94 Adherence shall be given by written notification addressed to the Swiss Federal Council and shall take effect six months after the date of their receipt. The Swiss Federal Council shall communicate adherences to the Governments of all the countries on whose behalf the Convention was signed or notification of adherence made. ARTICLE 95 A state of war shall give immediate effect to ratifications deposited and to adherences notified by belligerent Powers prior to or after the outbreak of hostilities. The communication of ratifications or adherences received from Powers at war shall be made by the Swiss Federal Council by the most rapid method. ARTICLE 96 Each of the High Contracting Parties shall have the right to denounce the present Convention. The denunciation shall not take effect until one year after notification has been made in writng to the Swiss Federal Council. The latter shall communicate such notification to the Governments of all the High ContractingParties. The denunciation shall have effect only with respect to the High Contracting Party which gave notification thereof. Moreover, such denunciation shall not take effect during a war in which the denouncing Power is involved. In this case, the present Convention shall continue in effect, beyond the period of one year, until the conclusion of peace, and, in any event, until the Processes of repatriation are completed. [Page 624] ARTICLE 97 A duly certified copy of the present Convention shall be deposited in the archives of the League of Nations by the Swiss Federal Council. Likewise, ratifications, adherences, and denunciations of which the Swiss Federal Council shall be notified, shall be communicated by it to the League of Nations. In faith whereof, the Plenipotentiaries named above have signed the present Convention. Done at Geneva, the twenty-seventh of July, one thousand nine hundred and twenty-nine, in a single copy, which shall remain in the archives of the Swiss Confederation and duly certified copies of which shall be forwarded to the Governments of all the countries invited to the Conference. [Here follow signatures.]
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