Russia: Respect the Rights of Prisoners of War
(Berlin) – Russian authorities should stop broadcasting programs featuring images of and interviews with captured Ukrainian soldiers that expose them to public curiosity, Human Rights Watch said today. Such treatment of prisoners of war, or POWs, violates protections under the Geneva Conventions intended to ensure dignified treatment of captured combatants on all sides.
“Russian authorities should stop filming Ukrainian POWs and broadcasting their images, even if they are in situations of relative comfort,” said Aisling Reidy, senior legal adviser at Human Rights Watch. “The obligation under the Geneva Conventions is to protect POWs from being objects of public curiosity, as well as from intimidation or humiliation.”
On April 2 and 4, 2022, several Russian television stations broadcast reports showing, and in many cases identifying, Ukrainian POWs in Russian custody in Sevastopol, including footage of Tatyana Moskalkova, high commissioner for human rights in the Russian Federation, alongside and interacting with the POWs. These reports appeared on the website of Channel One, the main Russian government television station in multiple places as well as the television programming of NTS, a television station in Russia-occupied Crimea. They were also shared on Facebook and Youtube. The purpose of the broadcasts appears to be to demonstrate that …read more
Source:: Human Rights Watch
