Chapter

The legal status and protection of the rights of prisoners of war

Md Jahid Hossain Bhuiyan

Revisiting the Geneva Conventions : 1949-2019

Leiden : Brill Nijhoff, 2019

p. 40-74

English

Bibliography : p. 72-74

Prisoners of war (POWs) should be referred to as victims of events, and not as criminals. As members of the armed forces of their country before their capture, they may have carried out hostile attacks against their enemy, but after their capture they are detained under the power of the enemy. History has demonstrated that they are in a very delicate position. Hence, special protection needs to be awarded to POWs. The sole legitimate goal of armed conflicts is to decrease the military authority of the enemy, not to leave no survivors. Hence, fundamental rights and a minimum standard of treatment that is to be awarded to all POWs is provided by the Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War of 12 August 1949 (GC III). This chapter examines the legal position and rights of POWs.

• Full text : restricted access (ICRC)

• Revisiting the Geneva Conventions : 1949-2019 / ed. by Md Jahid Hossain Bhuiyan and Borhan Uddin Khan