Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Table of cases
- Table of treaties
- Table of UN Resolutions
- List of abbreviations
- 1 The general framework
- 2 The legal nature and basic principles of belligerent occupation
- 3 Human rights and belligerent occupation
- 4 The maintenance of law and order in occupied territories
- 5 Legislation by the Occupying Power
- 6 The judicial system in occupied territories
- 7 Protection of the civilian population under belligerent occupation
- 8 Special protection in occupied territories
- 9 Destruction and pillage of property in occupied territories
- 10 Seizure and use of property in occupied territories
- 11 Other major issues relating to belligerent occupation
- 12 The termination of belligerent occupation
- Conclusion
- Index of persons
- Index of subjects
- References
8 - Special protection in occupied territories
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 January 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Table of cases
- Table of treaties
- Table of UN Resolutions
- List of abbreviations
- 1 The general framework
- 2 The legal nature and basic principles of belligerent occupation
- 3 Human rights and belligerent occupation
- 4 The maintenance of law and order in occupied territories
- 5 Legislation by the Occupying Power
- 6 The judicial system in occupied territories
- 7 Protection of the civilian population under belligerent occupation
- 8 Special protection in occupied territories
- 9 Destruction and pillage of property in occupied territories
- 10 Seizure and use of property in occupied territories
- 11 Other major issues relating to belligerent occupation
- 12 The termination of belligerent occupation
- Conclusion
- Index of persons
- Index of subjects
- References
Summary
424. Special protection in occupied territories is conferred on (i) certain classes of persons, owing to their vulnerability (refugees, women and children); as well as on (ii) certain indispensable services that must be performed for humanitarian purposes (medical services, civil defence and humanitarian relief). This special protection merely adds to – and never detracts from – the ordinary protection enjoyed by protected persons.
Refugees
425. Although nationals of the Occupying Power are not protected persons under Geneva Convention (IV) (see supra 141), there is a sui generis dispensation in favour of refugees. The Convention tackles this knotty problem in Article 70 (second paragraph):
Nationals of the Occupying Power who, before the outbreak of hostilities, have sought refuge in the territory of the occupied State, shall not be arrested, prosecuted, convicted or deported from the occupied territory, except for offences committed after the outbreak of hostilities, or for offences under common law committed before the outbreak of hostilities which, according to the law of the occupied State, would have justified extradition in time of peace.
426. The idea underlying Article 70 (second paragraph) is that the right to asylum, enjoyed by refugees before the outbreak of hostilities, ‘must continue to be respected by their home country, when it takes over control as Occupying Power in the territory of the country of asylum’. The paradigmatic example is that of German Jews who, on the eve of WWII, sought asylum in countries like France or the Netherlands while retaining their German nationality: when the countries of refuge were later overrun by the Nazis, these refugees ought to have continued to benefit from protection.
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- The International Law of Belligerent Occupation , pp. 180 - 194Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009