Article 52

Unless he be a volunteer, no prisoner of war may be employed on labour which is of an unhealthy or dangerous nature.

No prisoner of war shall be assigned to labour which would be looked upon as humiliating for a member of the Detaining Power's own forces.

The removal of mines or similar devices shall be considered as dangerous labour.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Seems like the Geneva suggestions should allow for making invaders pickup their trash.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago

So, set aside legal or ethical concerns for a moment.

Let's say that when you capture soldiers, that you adopt a policy of placing them in a situation that'll kill them off. Because, sure, you're upset with 'em for participating in the war.

What that does is ensure that soldiers who might have surrendered are going to fight to the death. If a soldier is dead either way, then there's no meaningful surrender offer.

Ukraine -- just as any other country at war -- doesn't want to have to fight every Russian soldier to the death, as that results in a higher cost in Ukrainian lives. Ukraine would considerably rather that a given Russian soldier who is willing to surrender actually surrender, not try and discourage him from doing so.