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Article 15 of the Third Convention requires that the Detaining Power provide for the maintenance of prisoners of war. This includes the basic obligation to provide them with food and water. Article 26 contains more detailed rules and sets the standard that the food and water that prisoners receive must be sufficient to keep them in good health and prevent loss of weight or the development of nutritional deficiencies.
Article 20 outlines the conditions in which the evacuation of prisoners of war from the combat zone to safe camps must be carried out. It supplements Article 19, which requires such evacuation to take place as soon as possible after the prisoners have fallen into the power of the enemy.
The places where prisoners of war are interned – possibly for an extended period of time – will have a direct impact on the quality of their lives in captivity and on their physical and mental health. Ensuring that these places meet certain basic requirements is therefore essential to secure humane treatment for prisoners and respect for their persons. Article 22 sets out requirements and prohibitions on the selection of sites on which to establish internment camps and on the types of installations where prisoners of war may be accommodated. It furthermore governs how the prisoners must be assembled. More detailed requirements regarding prisoners' quarters are contained in Article 25, while Article 29 lays down specific safeguards regarding hygiene.
Article 99 forms part of the chapter on penal and disciplinary sanctions and is the first article in the section on judicial proceedings, setting out 'general principles' for judicial proceedings against prisoners of war. These general principles oblige Detaining Powers to observe certain fundamental guarantees when exercising their judicial authority over prisoners of war.
A Detaining Power is responsible for the well-being of its prisoners of war from the moment they fall into its power. This includes not only refraining from prohibited acts, but also protecting the prisoners' lives and well-being. The obligation laid down in Article 19(1) to evacuate prisoners of war from the battlefield as soon as possible after they have fallen into the power of the enemy is an element of this duty. Evacuation aims to ensure that the prisoners are placed out of danger and facilitates the implementation of other protections, such as those provided for in Article 13. In line with this purpose, Article 19(2) allows for an exception to prompt evacuation: wounded or sick prisoners of war who, because of their condition, would be at greater risk by being evacuated than by staying where they are, may temporarily be kept back in the danger zone.
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Both of the 1929 Geneva Conventions contained similar provisions, but they referred only to 'a state of war'. The draft conventions adopted by the 17th International Conference of the Red Cross in Stockholm in 1948 expanded on the idea by referring to the situations defined in draft common article 2, which had not yet been divided into the current common Articles 2 and 3.
Article 86 forms part of the general provisions of the chapter on penal and disciplinary sanctions. The article lays down a rule commonly known as the prohibition against double jeopardy or, in Latin terms, non or ne bis in idem ('not twice for the same'). This rule acts as a procedural bar against prisoners of war being successively prosecuted or punished in respect of the same act or charge. Article 86 thereby seeks to prevent abusive punishments and to avoid prisoners of war having to live in fear of further prosecution in respect of an act for which they have already been finally convicted or acquitted. A parallel provision is to be found in Article 117(2) of the Fourth Convention, and the prohibition is also reflected, albeit in different terms, in Article 75(4)(h) of Additional Protocol I.
Experiences during the Second World War, as well as in more recent conflicts, have shown that prisoners of war who are recaptured following an escape or attempted escape are often in a particularly vulnerable position.
