Torture and Detention: Guantanamo Bay Prisoners and the
The Geneva Convention and Prisoners of War
The Geneva Convention, also known as the Convention III Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, was modified by representatives of a number of governments on August 12, 1949 (International Committee for the Red Cross, 1, 1). Elements of the Convention identify those individuals constituting the Enemy forces, members of military and supportive units, civilians, and prisoners of war. Prisoners of war are persons belonging to one of several categories who have fallen into the power of the enemy. These categories include:
. Members of the armed forces of a party to the conflict including members of militias or volunteer corps forming part of such armed forces.
. Members of other militaries and other volunteer corps including those of organized resistance movements who meet several conditions among which conducting operations in accordance with the laws and customs of war is prominent.
. Members of regular armed forces who profess allegiance to a government or an authority not recognized by the Detaining Power.
. Persons who accompany the armed forces without being members thereof but who carry some type of formal authorization from the armed forces they accompany.
. Members of crews of the merchant marine and civil aircraft of Parties to the conflict.
. Inhabitants of non-occupied territories who take up arms to resist the invading force (International Committee for the Red Cross, 1, 2).
Noticeably absent from this listing are individuals operating without the authorization of a nation-state. Non-state militant movements or terrorist organizations are not specifically addressed within the framework of the Geneva Convention. Consequently, application of the Geneva Convention to the treatment of combatants or individuals who engage in attacks upon a sovereign nation-state tends ...