Under IHL, parties to armed conflict must take all necessary precautions to treat captured persons humanely and in accordance with specific protection provided by their status. It is also prohibited to capture an adversary by resort to perfidy.
See also Capture Cards; Perfidy; Spies; Levée en masse; Journalists
OUTLINE
Chapter 6, I. Who is a combatant ?
Chapter 6, III. Treatment of prisoners of war, h) punishment for acts committed prior to capture
LEGAL SOURCE
CASES
Cuba, Status of Captured “Guerrillas”
ICRC, IHL and the Challenges of Contemporary Armed Conflicts
Former Yugoslavia, Special Agreements between the Parties to the Conflicts
United States Military Court in Germany, Trial of Skor zeny and Others
The International Criminal Court
United States, The Obama Administration’s Internment Standards
ICRC/Lebanon, Sabra and Chatila
Eritrea/Ethiopia, Partial Award on POWs
Case Study, Armed Conflicts in the former Yugoslavia
Philippines, Application of IHL by the National Democratic Front of the Philippines
Israel, The Targeted Killings Case
British Policy Towards German Shipwrecked
Israel, Cheikh Obeid et al. v. Ministry of Security
United States, Use of Armed Drones for Extraterritorial Targeted Killings
U.S., Lethal Operations against Al-Qa’ida Leaders
United Kingdom, The Case of Serdar Mohammed (Court of Appeal and Supreme Court Judgments)
USA, Guantánamo, End of "Active Hostilities" in Afghanistan
ECCC, Detention Sites in Cambodia
Mexico, Recapture of Ovidio Guzmán, One of the Leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel
BIBLIOGRAPHIC RESOURCES
BORELLI Silvia, "The Treatment of Terrorist Suspects Captured Abroad: Human Rights and Humanitarian Law", in BIANCHI Andrea (ed.), Enforcing International Law Norms against Terrorism, Oxford, Hart, 2004, pp. 39-61.
MEYER Michael A., "Liability of POWs for Offences Committed Prior to Capture – The Astiz Affair", in ICLQ, Vol. 32, 1983. Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, "The Copenhagen Process on the Handling of Detainees in International Military Operations", in Revue de droit militaire et de droit de la guerre, Vol. 3-4, No. 46, 2007, pp. 363-392.
YIN Tung, Distinguishing Soldiers and Non-State Actors: Clarifying the Geneva Convention's Regulation of Interrogation of Captured Combatants through Positive Inducements, University of Iowa Legal Studies Research Paper, No. 08-42, September 2008, 55 pp.
DUTLI Maria Teresa, “Captured Child Combatants”, in IRRC, No. 278, September-October 1990, pp. 421-434.
CORN Geoffrey S., BLANK Laurie R., JENKS Chris and JENSEN Eric Talbot, “Belligerent Targeting and the Invalidity of a Least Harmful Means Rule”, 89 International Legal Studies (2013)
GOODMAN Ryan, "The Power to Kill or Capture Enemy Combatants", European Journal of International Law, Vol. 24, No. 3 (2013), pp. 819-853
GARRAWAY Charles, "‘To Kill or Not to Kill?’—Dilemmas on the Use of Force", Journal of Conflict & Security Law, Vol. 14, No. 3 (2010), pp. 499–510
OHLIN Jens David, “The Duty to Capture”, 97 Minnesota Law Review 1268 (2013)
SCHMITT Michael N., “Wound, Capture, or Kill: A Reply to Ryan Goodman’s ‘The Power to Kill or Capture Enemy Combatants’", 24(3) European Journal of International 855 (2013)