73
Convention also intends to protect those civilians in occupied territory who, while having
the nationality of the Party to the conflict in whose hands they find themselves, are refugees
and thus no longer owe allegiance to this Party and no longer enjoy its diplomatic protection
(consider, for instance, a situation similar to that of German Jews who had fled to France
before 1940, and thereafter found themselves in the hands of German forces occupying
French territory).
165.
Thus already in 1949 the legal bond of nationality was not regarded as crucial and
allowance was made for special cases. In the aforementioned case of refugees, the lack of
both allegiance to a State and diplomatic protection by this State was regarded as more
important than the formal link of nationality. 205 In the cases provided for in Article 4(2), in
addition to nationality, account was taken of the existence or non-existence of diplomatic
protection: nationals of a neutral State or a co-belligerent State are not treated as “protected
persons” unless they are deprived of or do not enjoy diplomatic protection. In other words,
those nationals are not “protected persons” as long as they benefit from the normal
diplomatic protection of their State; when they lose it or in any event do not enjoy it, the
Convention automatically grants them the status of “protected persons”.
166.
This legal approach, hinging on substantial relations more than on formal bonds,
becomes all the more important in present-day international armed conflicts.
While
previously wars were primarily between well-established States, in modern inter-ethnic
armed conflicts such as that in the former Yugoslavia, new States are often created during
the conflict and ethnicity rather than nationality may become the grounds for allegiance.
Or, put another way, ethnicity may become determinative of national allegiance. Under
these conditions, the requirement of nationality is even less adequate to define protected
find themselves on the territory of the other Party to the conflict occupied by their national State, they
nevertheless do not lose the status of “protected persons” (see Final Record of the Diplomatic Conference of
Geneva of 1949, vol. II, pp. 561-562, 793-796, 813-814).
205
See also Article 44 of Geneva Convention IV:
“In applying the measures of control mentioned in the present Convention, the Detaining Power shall
not treat as enemy aliens exclusively on the basis of their nationality de jure of an enemy State,
refugees who do not, in fact, enjoy the protection of any government.”
In addition, see Article 70(2):
“Nationals of the Occupying Power who, before the outbreak of hostilities, have sought refuge in the
territory of the occupied State, shall not be arrested, prosecuted, convicted or deported from the
occupied territory, except for the offences committed after the outbreak of hostilities, or for offences
under common law committed before the outbreak of hostilities which, according to the law of the
occupied State, would have justified extradition in time of peace.”
Case No.: -94-1-A
15 July 1999