Fourth Geneva Convention

The Fourth Geneva Convention, 1949 protects civilians during armed conflict and military occupation. Regarding an occupier’s own civilians, it establishes a specific rule against their state-directed movement into occupied territory.

Core prohibition

Under Article 49(6), an occupying power “shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” The rule therefore prohibits the occupying state from organising or carrying out the implantation of its civilians in occupied territory.

Scope and purpose

The prohibition seeks to prevent demographic alteration and colonisation of occupied territory by the occupying power. Article 49(6) does not limit the prohibition to forcible movement of the occupier’s civilians, unlike the wording used for certain transfers of the occupied population.

• The rule binds the occupying power and addresses its conduct concerning its own civilian population.
• It operates during partial or total occupation covered by Article 2, even if the occupation meets no armed resistance.
• It must be distinguished from Article 49’s separate prohibition on forcible transfers or deportations of protected persons from occupied territory.