Card 09 of 10 · Geneva III · Article 104
Notice that a prisoner is to be tried
The rule that requires it
Article 104 of Geneva Convention III — Notification of judicial proceedings. Retrieved verbatim, 2026-08-22.
In any case in which the Detaining Power has decided to institute judicial proceedings against a prisoner of war, it shall notify the Protecting Power as soon as possible and at least three weeks before the opening of the trial. This period of three weeks shall run as from the day on which such notification reaches the Protecting Power at the address previously indicated by the latter to the Detaining Power.
The said notification shall contain the following information:
(1) surname and first names of the prisoner of war, his rank, his army, regimental, personal or serial number, his date of birth, and his profession or trade, if any;
(2) place of internment or confinement;
(3) specification of the charge or charges on which the prisoner of war is to be arraigned, giving the legal provisions applicable;
(4) designation of the court which will try the case, likewise the date and place fixed for the opening of the trial.
The same communication shall be made by the Detaining Power to the prisoners' representative.
If no evidence is submitted, at the opening of a trial, that the notification referred to above was received by the Protecting Power, by the prisoner of war and by the prisoners' representative concerned, at least three weeks before the opening of the trial, then the latter cannot take place and must be adjourned.
What the record shows instead
United States / Israel
Detainees have generally been held in secret, without being given a reason, without access to a lawyer and without effective judicial review, which removes the procedural guarantees these articles exist to provide.
4 sources
frontline
B'Tselem · 2009-10
Israeli field-documentation organisation on the statutory framework that holds Palestinians indefinitely without charge or trial, and the Incarceration of Unlawful Combatants Law that underpins it.
institutional
OHCHR · 2024-07-31
Thousands of Palestinians held since October 2023 in arbitrary, prolonged and incommunicado detention, generally without being given a reason, without access to a lawyer and without effective judicial review, with allegations of torture and sexual abuse of women and men.
institutional
Israel must end mass incommunicado detention and torture of Palestinians from Gaza
Amnesty International · 2024-07-08
Documents mass incommunicado detention of Palestinians from Gaza, including denial of the fact of detention to families.
examined
Gaza Amendments to Israel's 'Unlawful Combatants Law' are Inconsistent with International Law
Opinio Juris · 2025-04-08
Legal analysis of the law defining an 'unlawful combatant' as a person not entitled to prisoner-of-war status, and of the amendments extending indefinitely renewable detention of people from Gaza without evidence produced. As of 1 July 2024, 1,402 Palestinians were held under it.