The purpose of Article 124 is to reduce the financial burden arising from thetransmission of information, by mail or other means of communication, that bothnational information bureaux and the Central Information Agency, also known asCentral Prisoner of War Agency and hereinafter referred to as ‘Central TracingAgency’, have to engage in as part of their functions under Articles 122 and 123respectively.

Article 24 is the last article in the chapter containing general ruleson the internment of prisoners of war. It requires that conditions ofinternment in permanent transit or screening camps be similar to thosein prisoner-of-war camps and that the prisoners in such camps receivethe same treatment as prisoners in other camps.

Article 84 forms part of the general provisions of the chapter onpenal and disciplinary sanctions. It establishes the competence ofmilitary courts for the trial of prisoners of war. Consistent withthe ‘principle of assimilation’, Article 84 only permits theprosecution of prisoners of war before civilian courts if thesecourts have expressly been granted jurisdiction to try members ofthe armed forces of the Detaining Power for the same offence.

In 1949, the system of repression contained in the Geneva Conventions(hereinafter referred to as ‘the grave breaches regime’) was a remarkableinnovation in the law regulating international armed conflict. Article 129is common to the four Conventions.

Article 32 needs to be read against the background of other provisionsin the First, Second and Third Conventions regulating several categoriesof military medical personnel, on the one hand, and other members of thearmed forces with qualifications in the medical field, on the other.

The issue of unhealthy or dangerous work, together with the questionwhether prisoners of war may be used for demining, was the topic of fiercedebate at the Diplomatic Conference in 1949. The drafting of Article 52 wasclosely linked to that of Article 50. While the latter provides anexhaustive list of categories of labour that prisoners of war may becompelled to do, the present article prohibits their employment on labourwhich is unhealthy or dangerous, unless they volunteer. The third paragraphof Article 52 makes clear that demining activities are to be considereddangerous labour, while the second paragraph provides that prisoners of warmay not be assigned to labour which would be considered humiliating for amember of the Detaining Power’s own forces.

Article 122 regulates the establishment and functioning of national informationbureaux. The main task of these bureaux is to manage and process information,including its collection, centralization and transmission, about personsprotected by international humanitarian law who have fallen into enemy hands.Articles 136–139 of the Fourth Convention contain parallel provisions concerningpersons protected under that Convention.

The Convention’s ‘testimonium’, beginning by the specific formulation ‘inwitness whereof’, provides that, in order to sign the Convention in the nameof a State, the representative of that State has to have deposited fullpowers.

Without certain prerogatives, prisoners’ representatives would find itdifficult, if not impossible, to carry out all of their duties. Theseprerogatives are the subject of Article 81. They include materialfacilities, the right to appoint assistants, the freedom to visit andconsult prisoners of war, and means of communication.