There are three Geneva conventions - the original of 1864, for the protection of wounded on the battlefield; and the subsequent two of 1949 and 1951 for the proper treatment of civilians in wartime, and the protection and humane treatment of POWs, respectively.
Both of these photographs violate the letter of the 1951 Convention - images of live POWs are not to be circulated by the capturing forces for the curiosity of the public or for any other reason.
It's worth noting that the US Army tries to prevent photos such as Exhibit A (the AP wire photo) from being released. Exhibit B, on the other hand, is a video of an interview conducted under torture and released by the Iraqi government.
The recent release of photos of the corpses of Uday and Qusay Hussein, killed in action (they were apparently both shooting back), is not a violation of any of the Geneva Convention, as they were neither noncombatant civilians nor taken prisoner, and they were killed, not wounded. In fact, sections of the 1951 Geneva Convention suggest that forces will use all reasonable measures to identify POWs who die in captivity, in order to communicate that fact to the forces for whom they were fighting. In a way, because there is now no official way to reach the Iraqi command-and-control apparatus, the release of this information in the wide media is perhaps the most practical and sure way to communicate the fact of Uday and Qusay's death to the forces they belonged to.
Interesting little twist. My mom (after Shakespeare) likes to say "All's fair in love and war," and that seems to trump Geneva in any era.
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Both of these photographs violate the letter of the 1951 Convention - images of live POWs are not to be circulated by the capturing forces for the curiosity of the public or for any other reason.
It's worth noting that the US Army tries to prevent photos such as Exhibit A (the AP wire photo) from being released. Exhibit B, on the other hand, is a video of an interview conducted under torture and released by the Iraqi government.
The recent release of photos of the corpses of Uday and Qusay Hussein, killed in action (they were apparently both shooting back), is not a violation of any of the Geneva Convention, as they were neither noncombatant civilians nor taken prisoner, and they were killed, not wounded. In fact, sections of the 1951 Geneva Convention suggest that forces will use all reasonable measures to identify POWs who die in captivity, in order to communicate that fact to the forces for whom they were fighting. In a way, because there is now no official way to reach the Iraqi command-and-control apparatus, the release of this information in the wide media is perhaps the most practical and sure way to communicate the fact of Uday and Qusay's death to the forces they belonged to.
Interesting little twist. My mom (after Shakespeare) likes to say "All's fair in love and war," and that seems to trump Geneva in any era.