One aspect of protection: upholding legal safeguards

The ICRC intervenes to ensure that certain universally recognized principles enshrined primarily in the Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols are respected by all belligerents or other parties involved: no person may be deprived of his or her freedom except on grounds and in accordance with procedures provided for by law or established local custom. The ICRC has therefore acted in conflict situations to see that the legal safeguards laid down in international humanitarian law are applied. It has for instance requested that prisoners of war accused of criminal offences be informed of the charges and evidence against them, in accordance with Articles 99 ff. of the Third Geneva Convention, and that the right of prisoners not to testify against themselves be respected. One State holding prisoners of war under investigation for the murder of another prisoner was reminded by the ICRC of the ban on extorting confessions, the right of the accused prisoners to be defended by a lawyer qualified to prepare their defence, their right to the services of an interpreter, etc.