{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/geneva-conventions-act-1957/schedule-FOURTH/part-3/chapter-4/crossheading-chapter-ixpenal-and-disciplinary-sanctions",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/geneva-conventions-act-1957/schedule-FOURTH/part-3/chapter-4/crossheading-chapter-ixpenal-and-disciplinary-sanctions.json",
  "legislation": "ukpga/Eliz2/5-6/52",
  "legislation_title": "Geneva Conventions Act 1957",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/geneva-conventions-act-1957",
  "path": "schedule/FOURTH/part/3/chapter/4/crossheading/chapter-ixpenal-and-disciplinary-sanctions",
  "kind": "crossheading",
  "number": null,
  "heading": "Chapter IX.—Penal and Disciplinary Sanctions",
  "text": "ARTICLE 117\nSubject to the provisions of the present Chapter, the laws in force in the territory in which they are detained will continue to apply to internees who commit offences during internment.\nIf general laws, regulations or orders declare acts committed by internees to be punishable, whereas the same acts are not punishable when committed by persons who are not internees, such acts shall entail disciplinary punishments only.\nNo internee may be punished more than once for the same act, or on the same count.\nARTICLE 118\nThe courts or authorities shall in passing sentence take as far as possible into account the fact that the defendant is not a national of the Detaining Power. They shall be free to reduce the penalty prescribed for the offence with which the internee is charged and shall not be obliged, to this end, to apply the minimum sentence prescribed.\nImprisonment in premises without daylight and, in general, all forms of cruelty without exception are forbidden.\nInternees who have served disciplinary or judicial sentences shall not be treated differently from other internees.\nThe duration of preventive detention undergone by an internee shall be deducted from any disciplinary or judicial penalty involving confinement to which he may be sentenced.\nInternee Committees shall be informed of all judicial proceedings instituted against internees whom they represent, and of their result.\nARTICLE 119\nThe disciplinary punishments applicable to internees shall be the following:\n(1) a fine which shall not exceed 50 per cent. of the wages which the internee would otherwise receive under the provisions of Article 95 during a period of not more than thirty days;\n(2) discontinuance of privileges granted over and above the treatment provided for by the present Convention;\n(3) fatigue duties, not exceeding two hours daily, in connexion with the maintenance of the place of internment;\n(4) confinement.\nIn no case shall disciplinary penalties be inhuman, brutal or dangerous for the health of internees. Account shall be taken of the internee’s age, sex and state of health.\nThe duration of any single punishment shall in no case exceed a maximum of thirty consecutive days, even if the internee is answerable for several breaches of discipline when his case is dealt with, whether such breaches are connected or not.\nARTICLE 120\nInternees who are recaptured after having escaped or when attempting to escape, shall be liable only to disciplinary punishment in respect of this Act, even if it is a repeated offence.\nArticle 118, paragraph 3, notwithstanding, internees punished as a result of escape or attempt to escape, may be subjected to special surveillance, on condition that such surveillance does not affect the state of their health, that it is exercised in a place of internment and that it does not entail the abolition of any of the safeguards granted by the present Convention.\nInternees who aid and abet an escape or attempt to escape, shall be liable on this count to disciplinary punishment only.\nARTICLE 121\nEscape, or attempt to escape, even if it is a repeated offence, shall not be deemed an aggravating circumstance in cases where an internee is prosecuted for offences committed during his escape.\nThe Parties to the conflict shall ensure that the competent authorities exercise leniency in deciding whether punishment inflicted for an offence shall be of a disciplinary or judicial nature, especially in respect of acts committed in connexion with an escape, whether successful or not.\nARTICLE 122\nActs which constitute offences against discipline shall be investigated immediately. This rule shall be applied, in particular, in cases of escape or attempt to escape. Recaptured internees shall be handed over to the competent authorities as soon as possible.\nIn cases of offences against discipline, confinement awaiting trial shall be reduced to an absolute minimum for all internees, and shall not exceed fourteen days. Its duration shall in any case be deducted from any sentence of confinement.\nThe provisions of Articles 124 and 125 shall apply to internees who are in confinement awaiting trial for offences against discipline.\nARTICLE 123\nWithout prejudice to the competence of courts and higher authorities, disciplinary punishment may be ordered only by the commandant of the place of internment, or by a responsible officer or official who replaces him, or to whom he has delegated his disciplinary powers.\nBefore any disciplinary punishment is awarded, the accused internee shall be given precise information regarding the offences of which he is accused, and given an opportunity of explaining his conduct and of defending himself. He shall be permitted, in particular, to call witnesses and to have recourse, if necessary, to the services of a qualified interpreter. The decision shall be announced in the presence of the accused and of a member of the Internee Committee.\nThe period elapsing between the time of award of a disciplinary punishment and its execution shall not exceed one month.\nWhen an internee is awarded a further disciplinary punishment, a period of at least three days shall elapse between the execution of any two of the punishments, if the duration of one of these is ten days or more.\nA record of disciplinary punishments shall be maintained by the commandant of the place of internment and shall be open to inspection by representatives of the Protecting Power.\nARTICLE 124\nInternees shall not in any case be transferred to pentitentiary establishments (prisons, penitentiaries, convict prisons, etc.) to undergo disciplinary punishment therein.\nThe premises in which disciplinary punishments are undergone shall conform to sanitary requirements; they shall in particular be provided with adequate bedding. Internees undergoing punishment shall be enabled to keep themselves in a state of cleanliness.\nWomen internees undergoing disciplinary punishment shall be confined in separate quarters from male internees and shall be under the immediate supervision of women.\nARTICLE 125\nInternees awarded disciplinary punishment shall be allowed to exercise and to stay in the open air at least two hours daily.\nThey shall be allowed, if they so request, to be present at the daily medical inspections. They shall receive the attention which their state of health requires and, if necessary, shall be removed to the infirmary of the place of internment or to a hospital.\nThey shall have permission to read and write, likewise to send and receive letters. Parcels and remittances of money, however, may be withheld from them until the completion of their punishment; such consignments shall meanwhile be entrusted to the Internee Committee, who will hand over to the infirmary the perishable goods contained in the parcels.\nNo internees given a disciplinary punishment may be deprived of the benefit of the provisions of Articles 107 and 143 of the present Convention.\nARTICLE 126\nThe provisions of Articles 71 to 76 inclusive shall apply, by analogy, to proceedings against internees who are in the national territory of the Detaining Power.",
  "extent": null,
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [],
  "outstanding_effects": [],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Eliz2/5-6/52/schedule/FOURTH/part/3/chapter/4/crossheading/chapter-ixpenal-and-disciplinary-sanctions",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T11:13:37.866578+00:00"
  },
  "licence": "Open Government Licence v3.0",
  "licence_url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/",
  "attribution": "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives."
}