GENEVA CONVENTIONS

CHAPTER 12:03
GENEVA CONVENTIONS

ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS

    SECTION

    1.    Short title

    2.    Interpretation

    3.    Ratification

    4.    Grave breach of Conventions

    5.    Notice of trial of protected persons

    6.    Legal representation of certain persons

    7.    Appeal by protected persons

    8.    Reduction of sentence and custody of protected persons

        Schedules

18 of 1967

    An Act to enable effect to be given to certain International Conventions done at Geneva on the Twelfth Day of August, one thousand nine hundred and forty-nine and for purposes connected therewith

1.    Short title

    This Act may be cited as the Geneva Conventions Act.

2.    Interpretation

    In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires—

    “Conventions” means the Conventions set out in the Schedules;

    “court” does not include a court-martial;

    “legal practitioner” means a person entitled to practise as a legal practitioner in Malawi under the Legal Education and Legal Practitioners Act;

    “prisoner’s representative” means, in relation to a protected prisoner of war at a particular time, the person by whom the functions of a prisoner’s representative within the meaning of Article 79 of the Convention set out in the Third Schedule were exercisable in relation to that prisoner at the camp or place at which the prisoner was, at or last before that time, detained as a protected prisoner of war;

    “protected internee” means a person protected by the Convention set out in the Fourth Schedule and interned in Malawi;

    “protected prisoner of war” means a person protected by the Convention set out in the Third Schedule;

    “protecting power” means, in relation to a protected prisoner of war or a protected internee, the power or organization 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 the protecting power under the Convention set out in the Third Schedule or, as the case may be, in the Fourth Schedule.

3.    Ratification

    The accession of the Government to the Conventions is hereby approved and ratified.

4.    Grave breach of Conventions

    (1) Any person, whatever his nationality, who, whether within or without Malawi commits or aids, abets or procures the commission by any other person of any such grave breach of any of the 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;

    (b)    Article 51 of the Convention set out in the Second Schedule;

    (c)    Article 130 of the Convention set out in the Third Schedule;

    (d)    Article 147 of the Convention set out in the Fourth Schedule,

    shall, without prejudice to his liability under any other written law, be guilty of an offence and—

        (i)    in the case of a grave breach causing or resulting in or contributing to the death of the person protected by the Convention in question, shall be liable to imprisonment for life;

        (ii)    in the case of any other grave breach, shall be liable to imprisonment for fourteen years.

    (2) Where an offence under this section is committed without Malawi a person may be proceeded against, tried and punished therefor in any place in Malawi 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 the Director of Public Prosecutions.

    (4) Where in any proceedings under this section in respect of a grave breach of any of the Conventions any question arises under Article 2 of that Convention, that question shall be determined by the Minister, and a certificate purporting to set out 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.

    (5) Any written law relating to the trial by court-martial of persons who commit civil offences shall have effect for the purposes of the jurisdiction of courts-martial convened in Malawi as if this section had not been passed.

5.    Notice of trial of protected persons

    (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 imprisonment for a term of two years or more,

    shall not proceed with the trial unless it is proved to the satisfaction of the court…