Section I. General Provisions
Art 126. Representatives or delegates of the Protecting Powers
shall have permission to go to all places where prisoners of war
may be, particularly to places of internment, imprisonment and
labour, and shall have access to all premises occupied by
prisoners of war; they shall also be allowed to go to the places
of departure, passage and arrival of prisoners who are being
transferred. They shall be able to interview the prisoners, and
in particular the prisoners' representatives, without witnesses,
either personally or through an interpreter.
Representatives and delegates of the Protecting Powers shall
have full liberty to select the places they wish to visit. The
duration and frequency of these visits shall not be restricted.
Visits may not be prohibited except for reasons of imperative
military necessity, and then only as an exceptional and temporary
measure.
The Detaining Power and the Power on which the said prisoners
of war depend may agree, if necessary, that compatriots of these
prisoners of war be permitted to participate in the visits.
The delegates of the International Committee of the Red Cross
shall enjoy the same prerogatives. The appointment of such
delegates shall be submitted to the approval of the Power
detaining the prisoners of war to be visited.
Art 127. The High Contracting Parties undertake, in time of
peace as in time of war, to disseminate the text of the present
Convention as widely as possible in their respective countries,
and, in particular, to include the study thereof in their
programmes of military and, if possible, civil instruction, so
that the principles thereof may become known to all their armed
forces and to the entire population.
Any military or other authorities, who in time of war assume
responsibilities in respect of prisoners of war, must possess the
text of the Convention and be specially instructed as to its
provisions.
Art 128. The High Contracting Parties shall communicate to one
another through the Swiss Federal Council and, during
hostilities, through the Protecting Powers, the official
translations of the present Convention, as well as the laws and
regulations which they may adopt to ensure the application
thereof.
Art 129. The High Contracting Parties undertake to enact any
legislation necessary to provide effective penal sanctions for
persons committing, or ordering to be committed, any of the grave
breaches of the present Convention defined in the following
Article.
Each High Contracting Party shall be under the obligation to
search for persons alleged to have committed. or to have ordered
to be committed, such grave breaches, and shall bring such
persons, regardless of their nationality, before its own courts.
It may also, if it prefers, and in accordance with the provisions
of its own legislation, hand such persons over for trial to
another High Contracting Party concerned, provided such High
Contracting Party has made out a prima facie case.
Each High Contracting Party shall take measures necessary for
the suppression of all acts contrary to the provisions of the
present Convention other than the grave breaches defined in the
following Article.
In all circumstances, the accused persons shall benefit by
safeguards of proper trial and defence, which shall not be less
favourable than those provided by Article 105 and those following
of the present Convention.
Art 130. Grave breaches to which the preceding Article relates
shall be those involving any of the following acts, if committed
against persons orproperty protected by the Convention: wilful
killing, torture or inhuman treatment, including biological
experiments, wilfully causing great suffering or serious injury
to body or health, compelling a prisoner of war to serve in the
forces of the hostile Power, or wilfully depriving a prisoner of
war of the rights of fair and regular trial prescribed in this
Convention.
Art 131. No High Contracting Party shall be allowed to absolve
itself or any other High Contracting Party of any liability
incurred by itself or by another High Contracting Party in
respect of breaches referred to in the preceding Article.
Art 132. At the request of a Party to the conflict, an enquiry
shall be instituted, in a manner to be decided between the
interested Parties, concerning any alleged violation of the
Convention.
If agreement has not been reached concerning the procedure for
the enquiry, the Parties should agree on the choice of an umpire
who will decide upon the procedure to be followed.
Once the violation has been established, the Parties to the
conflict shall put an end to it and shall repress it with the
least possible delay.
Section II. Final Provisions
Art 133. The present Convention is established in English and
in French. Both texts are equally authentic.
The Swiss Federal Council shall arrange for official
translations of the Convention to be made in the Russian and
Spanish languages.
Art 134. The present Convention replaces the Convention of
July 27, 1929, in relations between the High Contracting Parties.
Art 135. In the relations between the Powers which are bound
by the Hague Convention respecting the Laws and Customs of War on
Land, whether that of July 29, 1899, or that of October 18, 1907,
and which are parties to the present Convention, this last
Convention shall be complementary to Chapter II of the
Regulations annexed to th above-mentioned Conventions of the
Hague.
Art 136. The present Convention, which bears the date of this
day, is open to signature until February 12, 1950, in the name of
the Powers represented at the Conference which opened at Geneva
on April 21, 1949; furthermore, by Powers not represented at that
Conference, but which are parties to the Convention of July 27,
1929.
Art 137. The present Convention shall be ratified as soon as
possible and the ratifications shall be deposited at Berne.
A record shall be drawn up of the deposit of each instrument
of ratification and certified copies of this record shall be
transmitted by the Swiss Federal Council to all the Powers in
whose name the Convention has been signed, or whose accession has
been notified.
Art 138. The present Convention shall come into force six
months after not less than two instruments of ratification have
been deposited.
Thereafter, it shall come into force for each High Contracting
Party six months after the deposit of the instrument of
ratification.
Art 139. From the date of its coming into force, it shall be
open to any Power in whose name the present Convention has not
been signed, to accede to this Convention.
Art 140. Accessions shall be notified in writing to the Swiss
Federal Council, and shall take effect six months after the date
on which they are received.
The Swiss Federal Council shall communicate the accessions to
all the Powers in whose name the Convention has been signed, or
whose accession has been notified.
Art 141. The situations provided for in Articles 2 and 3 shall
give immediate effect to ratifications deposited and accessions
notified by the Parties to the conflict before or after the
beginning of hostilities or occupation. The Swiss Federal Council
shall communicate by the quickest method any ratifications or
accessions received from Parties to the conflict.
Art 142. Each of the High Contracting Parties shall be at
liberty to denounce the present Convention.
The denunciation shall be notified in writing to the Swiss
Federal Council, which shall transmit it to the Governments of
all the High Contracting Parties.
The denunciation shall take effect one year after the
notification thereof has been made to the Swiss Federal Council.
However, a denunciation of which notification has been made at a
time when the denouncing Power is involved in a conflict shall
not take effect until peace has been concluded, and until after
operations connected with release and repatriation of the persons
protected by the present Convention have been terminated.
The denunciation shall have effect only in respect of the
denouncing Power. It shall in no way impair the obligations which
the Parties to the conflict shall remain bound to fulfil by
virtue of the principles of the law of nations, as they result
from the usages established among civilized peoples, from the
laws of humanity and the dictates of the public conscience.
Art 143. The Swiss Federal Council shall register the present
Convention with the Secretariat of the United Nations. The Swiss
Federal Council shall also inform the Secretariat of the United
Nations of all ratifications, accessions and denunciations
received by it with respect to the present Convention.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF the undersigned, having deposited their
respective full powers, have signed the present Convention.
DONE at Geneva this twelfth day of August 1949, in the English
and French languages. The original shall be deposited in the
Archives of the Swiss Confederation. The Swiss Federal Council
shall transmit certified copies thereof to each of the signatory
and acceding States.
