Article 6.
The present Convention shall apply from the outset of any conflict
or occupation mentioned in Article 2.
In the territory of Parties to the conflict, the application of
the present Convention shall cease on the general close of military
operations.
In the case of occupied territory,
the application of the present Convention shall cease one year after
the general close of military operations; however, the Occupying
Power shall be bound, for the duration of the occupation, to the
extent that such Power exercises the functions of government in
such territory, by the provisions of the following Articles of the
present Convention: 1 to 12, 27, 29 to 34, 47, 49, 51, 52, 53, 59,
61 to 77, 143.
Protected persons whose release, repatriation
or re-establishment may take place after such dates shall meanwhile
continue to benefit by the present Convention.
Article 7.
In addition to the agreements expressly provided for in Articles
11, 14, 15, 17, 36, 108, 109, 132, 133 and 149, the High Contracting
Parties may conclude other special agreements for all matters concerning
which they may deem it suitable to make separate provision. No special
agreement shall adversely affect the situation of protected persons,
as defined by the present Convention, not restrict the rights which
it confers upon them.
Protected persons shall continue to have the
benefit of such agreements as long as the Convention is applicable
to them, except where express provisions to the contrary are contained
in the aforesaid or in subsequent agreements, or where more favourable
measures have been taken with regard to them by one or other of
the Parties to the conflict.
Article 8.
Protected persons may in no circumstances renounce in part or in
entirety the rights secured to them by the present Convention, and
by the special agreements referred to in the foregoing Article,
if such there be.
Article 9.
The present Convention shall be applied with the cooperation and
under the scrutiny of the Protecting Powers whose duty it is to
safeguard the interests of the Parties to the conflict. For this
purpose, the Protecting Powers may appoint, apart from their diplomatic
or consular staff, delegates from amongst their own nationals or
the nationals of other neutral Powers. The said delegates shall
be subject to the approval of the Power with which they are to carry
out their duties.
The Parties to the conflict shall facilitate
to the greatest extent possible the task of the representatives
or delegates of the Protecting Powers.
The representatives or delegates of the Protecting
Powers shall not in any case exceed their mission under the present
Convention.
They shall, in particular, take account of
the imperative necessities of security of the State wherein they
carry out their duties.
Article 10.
The provisions of the present Convention constitute no obstacle
to the humanitarian activities which the International Committee
of the Red Cross or any other impartial humanitarian organization
may, subject to the consent of the Parties to the conflict concerned,
undertake for the protection of civilian persons and for their relief.
Article 11.
The High Contracting Parties may at any time agree to entrust to
an international organization
which offers all guarantees of impartiality and efficacy the duties
incumbent on the Protecting Powers by virtue of the present Convention.
When persons protected by the present Convention
do not benefit or cease to benefit, no matter for what reason, by
the activities of a Protecting Power or of an organization provided
for in the first paragraph above, the Detaining Power shall request
a neutral State, or such an organization, to undertake the functions
performed under the present Convention by a Protecting Power designated
by the Parties to a conflict.
If protection cannot be arranged accordingly,
the Detaining Power shall request or shall accept, subject to the
provisions of this Article, the offer of the services of a humanitarian
organization, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross,
to assume the humanitarian functions performed by Protecting Powers
under the present Convention.
Any neutral Power or any organization invited by the Power concerned
or offering itself for these purposes, shall be required to act
with a sense of responsibility towards the Party to the conflict
on which persons protected by the present Convention depend, and
shall be required to furnish sufficient assurances that it is in
a position to undertake the appropriate functions and to discharge
them impartially.
No derogation from the preceding provisions shall
be made by special agreements between Powers one of which is restricted,
even temporarily, in its freedom to negotiate with the other Power
or its allies by reason of military events, more particularly where
the whole, or a substantial part, of the territory of the said Power
is occupied.
Whenever in the present Convention mention is made
of a Protecting Power, such mention applies to substitute organizations
in the sense of the present Article.
The provisions of this Article shall extend and
be adapted to cases of nationals of a neutral State who are in occupied
territory or who find themselves in the territory of a belligerent
State in which the State of which they are nationals has not normal
diplomatic representation. |