Geneva Conventions Act, 1957 : 5 & 6 Eliz 2. Ch 52.

  • Great Britain.
Date:
1957
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Geneva Conventions Act, 1957 : 5 & 6 Eliz 2. Ch 52. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    20/142 (page 18)
    —cont. CH. 52 Geneva Conventions Act, 1957 5 & 6 ELIz. 2 ARTICLE 24 Medical personnel exclusively engaged in the search for, or the collection, transport or treatment of the wounded or sick, or in the prevention of disease, staff exclusively engaged in the administration of medical units and establishments, as well as chaplains attached to the armed forces, shall be respected and protected in all circumstances. ARTICLE 25 Members of the armed forces specially trained for employment, should the need arise, as hospital orderlies, nurses or auxiliary stretcher-bearers, in the search for or the collection, transport or treatment of the wounded and sick shall likewise be respected and protected if they are carrying out these duties at the time when they come into contact with the enemy or fall into his hands. ARTICLE 26 The staff of national Red Cross societies and that of other voluntary aid societies, duly recognised and authorised by their Governments, who may be employed on the same duties as the personnel named in Article 24, are placed on the same footing as the personnel named in the said Article, provided that the staff of such societies are subject to military laws and regulations. Each High Contracting Party shall notify to the other, either in time of peace or at the commencement of, or during hostilities, but in any case before actually employing them, the names of the societies which it has authorised, under its responsibility, to render assistance to the regular medical service of its armed forces. ARTICLE 27 A recognised society of a neutral country can only lend the assistance of its medical personnel and units to a Party to the conflict with the previous consent of its own Government and the authorisa- tion of the Party to the conflict concerned. That personnel and those units shall be placed under the control of that Party to the conflict. The neutral Government shall notify this consent to the adversary of the State which accepts such assistance. The Party to the conflict who accepts such assistance is bound to notify the adverse Party thereof before making any use of it. In no circumstances shall this assistance be considered as inter- ference in the conflict. The members of the personnel named in the first paragraph shall be duly furnished with the identity cards provided for in Article 40 before leaving the neutral country to which they belong. ARTICLE 28 Personnel designated in Articles 24 and 26 who fall into the hands of the adverse Party, shall be retained only in so far as the state of health, the spiritual needs and the number of prisoners of war require. Personnel thus retained shall not be deemed prisoners of war. Nevertheless they shall at least benefit by all the provisions of the