Geneva conventions act, 1962

• Enactment Date: 21 April 1962
• Act Number: 11

Number 11 of 1962.
GENEVA CONVENTIONS ACT, 1962.
ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS
Section 1. Short title. 2. Interpretation. 3. Grave breaches of Scheduled Conventions. 4. Minor breaches of Scheduled Conventions. 5. Proof of application of Convention. 6. Notice of trial of protected prisoners of war and internees to be served on protecting power. 7. Legal representation of certain persons. 8. Appeals by protected prisoners of war and internees convicted of offences under section 3.
FIRST SCHEDULE
SECOND SCHEDULE
THIRD SCHEDULE
FOURTH SCHEDULE
Number 11 of 1962.
GENEVA CONVENTIONS ACT, 1962.
AN ACT TO ENABLE EFFECT TO BE GIVEN SO FAR AS IRELAND IS CONCERNED TO CERTAIN PROVISIONS OF THE CONVENTIONS DONE AT GENEVA ON THE 12TH DAY OF AUGUST, 1949, RELATIVE TO THE AMELIORATION OF THE CONDITION OF THE WOUNDED AND SICK IN ARMED FORCES IN THE FIELD, THE AMELIORATION OF THE CONDITION OF WOUNDED, SICK AND SHIPWRECKED MEMBERS OF ARMED FORCES AT SEA, THE TREATMENT OF PRISONERS OF WAR, AND THE PROTECTION OF CIVILIAN PERSONS IN TIME OF WAR. [21st April, 1962.]
BE IT ENACTED BY THE OIREACHTAS AS FOLLOWS:—
	Short title.	1.—This Act may be cited as the Geneva Conventions Act, 1962.
	Interpretation.	2.—In this Act—
	“court” does not include a court-martial;
	“Minister” means the Minister for External Affairs;
	“protected internee” means a person protected by the Convention set out in the Fourth Schedule to this Act and interned in the State;
	“protected prisoner of war” means a person protected by the Convention set out in the Third Schedule to this Act;
	“the protecting power”, in relation to a protected prisoner of war or a protected internee, means the power or organisation which is carrying out, in the interests of the power of which he is a national, or of whose forces he is, or was at any material time, a member, the duties assigned to protecting powers under the Convention set out in the Third, or, as the case may be, the Fourth Schedule to this Act;
	“the Scheduled Conventions” means the Conventions set out in the Schedules to this Act.
	Grave breaches of Scheduled Conventions.	3.—(1) Any person, whatever his nationality, who, whether in or outside the State, commits, or aids, abets or procures the commission by any other person of, any such grave breach of any of the Scheduled Conventions as is referred to in the following Articles respectively of those Conventions, that is to say:
	(a) Article 50 of the Convention set out in the First Schedule to this Act;
	(b) Article 51 of the Convention set out in the Second Schedule to this Act;
	(c) Article 130 of the Convention set out in the Third Schedule to this Act; or
	(d) Article 147 of the Convention set out in the Fourth Schedule to this Act;
	shall be guilty of an offence and on conviction on indictment thereof:
	(i) in the case of such a grave breach as aforesaid involving the wilful killing of a person protected by the Convention in question, shall be sentenced to death or to penal servitude for life or any less term;
	(ii) in the case of any other such grave breach as aforesaid, shall be liable to penal servitude for fourteen years or any less term or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years.
	(2) In the case of an offence under this section committed outside the State, a person may be proceeded against, indicted, tried and punished therefor in any place in the State as if the offence had been committed in that place, and the offence shall, for all purposes incidental to or consequential on the trial or punishment thereof, be deemed to have been committed in that place.
	(3) Proceedings for an offence under this section shall not be instituted except by, or on behalf of, or with the consent of the Attorney General.
	(4) A person charged with an offence under this section shall be tried by the Central Criminal Court.
	Minor breaches of Scheduled Conventions.	4.—(1) Any person, whatever his nationality, who, in the State, commits, or aids, or abets or procures the commission in the State by any other person of, any minor breach of any of the Scheduled Conventions shall be guilty of an offence.
	(2) Any citizen of Ireland who, outside the State, commits, or aids, or abets or procures the commission outside the State by any other person of, any minor breach of any of the Scheduled Conventions shall be guilty of an offence.
	(3) Any person who is guilty of an offence under this section shall be liable
	(a) on summary conviction thereof to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months, or, at the discretion of the court, to a fine not exceeding fifty pounds or to both such imprisonment and such fine; or
	(b) on conviction thereof on indictment to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, or to a fine not exceeding three hundred pounds, or, at the discretion of the court, to both such imprisonment and such fine.
	(4) In this section “minor breach” means contravention of a provision of any of the Scheduled Conventions which is not any such grave breach of that Convention as is mentioned in the relevant Article thereof referred to in section 3 of this Act.
	Proof of application of Convention.	5.—If, in proceedings under this Act in respect of any breach of any of the Scheduled Conventions, a question arises under Article 2 of that Convention (which relates to the circumstances in which the Convention applies), that question shall be determined by the Minister and a certificate purporting to set out any such determination and to be signed by or on behalf of the Minister shall be received in evidence and be deemed to be so signed, without further proof, unless the contrary is shown.
	Notice of trial of protected prisoners of war and internees to be served on protecting power.	6.—(1) The court before which—
	(a) a protected prisoner of war is brought up for trial for an offence; or
	(b) a protected internee is brought up for trial for an offence for which that court has power to sentence him to death or to penal servitude or imprisonment,
	shall not proceed with the trial until it is proved to the satisfaction of the court that a notice containing the particulars mentioned in subsection (2) of this section, so far as they are known to the prosecutor, has been served not less than three weeks previously on the protecting power (if there is a protecting power) and, if the accused is a protected prisoner of war, on the accused and the prisoners' representative.
	(2) The particulars referred to in subsection (1) of this section are—
	(a) the full name and description of the accused, including the date of his birth and his profession or trade, if any, and, if the accused is a protected prisoner of war, his rank and his army, regimental, personal or serial number;
	(b) his place of detention, internment or residence;
	(c) the offence with which he is charged; and
	(d) the court before which the trial is to take place and the time and place appointed for the trial.
	(3) For the purposes of this section a document purporting—
	(a) to be signed on behalf of the protecting power or by the prisoners' representative or by the person accused, as the case may be; and
	(b) to be an acknowledgment of the receipt by that power, representative or person on a specified day of a notice described in the document as a notice under this section,
	shall, unless the contrary is shown, be sufficient evidence that the notice required by subsection (1) of this section was served on that power, representative or person on that day.
	(4) In this section, “prisoners' representative”, in relation to a particular protected prisoner of war at a particular time, means the person by whom the functions of prisoners' representative within the meaning of Article 79 of the Convention set out in the Third Schedule to this Act were exercisable in relation to that prisoner at the camp or place at which that prisoner was, at or last before that time, detained as a protected prisoner of war.
	(5) A court which adjourns a trial for the purpose of enabling the requirements of this section to be complied with may, notwithstanding anything in any other enactment, remand the accused for the period of the adjournment.
	Legal representation of certain persons.	7.—(1) The Court before which:
	(a) any person is brought up for trial for an offence under section 3 or section 4 of this Act; or
	(b) a protected prisoner of war is brought up for trial of any offence, shall not proceed with the trial unless:
	(i) the accused is represented by counsel; and
	(ii) it is proved to the satisfaction of the Court that a period of not less than fourteen days has elapsed since instructions for the representation of the accused at the trial were first given to the solicitor by whom that counsel was instructed,
	and if the court adjourns the trial for the purpose of enabling the requirements of this subsection to be complied with, then, notwithstanding anything in any other enactment, the court may remand the accused for the period of the adjournment.
	(2) Where the accused is a protected prisoner of war, in the absence of counsel accepted by the accused as representing him, counsel instructed for the purpose on behalf of the protecting power shall, without prejudice to the requirements of sub-paragraph (ii) of paragraph (b) of subsection (1) of this section, be regarded for the purposes of that subsection as representing the accused.
	(3) If the court adjourns the trial in pursuance of subsection (1) of this section by reason that the accused is not represented by counsel, the court shall direct that a solicitor and counsel be assigned to watch over the interests of the accused at any further proceedings in connection with the offence, and at...