A RESEARCH AND COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE RIGHTS OF PRISONERS OF WAR WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO ISLAMIC TEACHINGS AND THE GENEVA CONVENTION

اسلامی تعلیمات اور جنیوا معاہدہ کے خصوصی حوالے سے جنگی قیدیوں کے حقوق کا تحقیقی و تقابلی مطالعہ

Abstract

If we look at human history, it will be cleared to us that war has been imposed on human beings in every age and time. In the aftermath of the war, the most brutal treatment was meted out to prisoners of war. Prior to Islam, prisoners of war did not have any significant rights. Islam grants rights to prisoners of war in an age when all forms of cruelty were justified in wars. Prisoners of war were treated like animals i.e., burned alive, cut off their noses and ears etc. There was nothing wrong with frying them, mutilating their corpses and drinking alcohol in their skulls. And some of them were enslaved and forced to live their whole lives with humiliation and disgrace. Islamic laws for prisoners of war have been in force for fourteen hundred years. Muslims have been following them during various wars. The implementation of these laws is a message of life for prisoners of war. The laws regarding prisoners of war are not made by any intellectual but by you. Islam has given special rights to prisoners of war keeping in view these laws. The Geneva Conventions are much younger than other Islamic laws. And not all international nations abide by them. These laws exist only in the form of documentations. In this regard, rights were presented in the context of the Geneva Conventions so that the international community could abide by them and protect themselves from inhumane treatment.