Geneva Conventions need to be modernized to better protect POWs’ rights - MP

He spoke at a round table, hosted by Ukrinform, on the topic "Protection of Ukraine's independence: legal foundations and today's challenges. To the 33rd anniversary of the declaration of Ukraine's independence."

"Unfortunately, you and I live in post-war international law, but it’s post-World War 2 law. And, of course, the implementation of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court... The Verkhovna Rada has already voted, and in the coming days the initiator of the alignment, President of Ukraine, shall sign the ratification. This is a huge step. But updating or improving, modernizing the Geneva Conventions has not been carried out systematically for a long time. So when we talk about the challenges that this system poses, this is the first and foremost of the three that I’d like to highlight. Unfortunately, in fact, for more than 80 years, updating has been purely technical, and there are no significant (upgrades - ed.) in this regard," Yurchyshyn said.

The second challenge, according to the lawmaker, "is the lack of direct mechanisms as everything depends on the goodwill of the participating countries."

"Now we have an extremely threatening situation, where the only organization that can monitor things, the Red Cross, monitors the detention of prisoners of war by the Ukrainian and Russian sides. The Ukrainian side provides maximum access, we comply with all requirements of international law. And violations are recorded at all stages, respectively: from the initial stage, capture, and up to detention. And it gradually decreases from sufficiently high indicators, which is quite logical on the battlefield. I would like to emphasize that even tying hands or blindfolding, which is a security requirement, from the point of view of the Red Cross, is qualified as a violation of rights and torture. That is, from the moment from 80% to 0% in places of detention on the territory of Ukraine. Russia does not allow the Red Cross to see our prisoners. As a result, the indicator is ‘zero’. And here we have a picture: a party that fulfills international obligations is in a worse situation, of course, at first glance. But we understand how Russian propaganda actively exploits this in the international arena," explained the People's Deputy.

He emphasized that "international law in the field of protection of the rights of prisoners of war is far behind the development of international law in the field of human rights protection."

"And for us, all these challenges are not theoretical, but practical. Of course, we do not show the exact number of Ukrainian prisoners of war, and I’m not even talking about civilian prisoners, who should not be held there at all, according to the Geneva Conventions. The parties shall promptly ensure the release of those who were forcibly taken into captivity and have no relation to combatants. Russia actually holds dozens of civilian prisoners. We cannot even establish the exact number because the vast majority of people in the occupied territories can in fact qualify as civilian prisoners," said Yurchyshyn.

He also reported that, in cooperation with international missions, the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War concluded that it is necessary to "adopt separate protocols to the statute of the Red Cross, which could adequately respond to the challenges of this war."

"We understand that without the involvement of the international community, without the involvement of effective mechanisms for the implementation of the Geneva Convention, we will not be able to effectively protect the rights of our prisoners of war, as they deserve," Yurchyshyn stressed.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, on August 21, the Verkhovna Rada passed a law to ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and its amendments.

The Rome Statute shall enter into force for Ukraine on the first day of the month following the 60th day from the date when the instrument of ratification is filed with the Secretary General of the United Nations.

The document on the ratification of the Rome Statute stipulates that Ukraine shall not recognize the ICC jurisdiction for war crimes for the next seven years if it concerns Ukrainian citizens.