By entering this website you agree that we use cookies in order to understand visitor preferences and keep improving our service.
Learn more
I accept
International Committee of the Red Cross
French
Contact
Resource centre
International Committee of the Red Cross
English
Français
Toggle navigation
Donate
Home
Who we are
What we do
Where we work
War & Law
Support us
Home
Who we are
What we do
Where we work
War & Law
Support us
Donate
Treaties, States Parties and Commentaries
Advanced Search
Treaties and Documents
Geneva Conventions of 1949 and Additional Protocols, and their Commentaries
By date
By topic
By State
Historical Treaties and Documents
By date
By topic
By State
Convention (IV) relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War. Geneva, 12 August 1949.
Family news
ARTICLE 25
All persons in the territory of a Party to the conflict, or in a territory occupied by it, shall be enabled to give news of a strictly personal nature to members of their families, wherever they may be, and to receive news from them. This correspondence shall be forwarded speedily and without undue delay.
If, as a result of circumstances, it becomes difficult or impossible to exchange family correspondence by the ordinary post, the Parties to the conflict concerned shall apply to a neutral intermediary, such as the Central Agency provided for in Article 140
, and shall decide in consultation with it how to ensure the fulfilment of their obligations under the best possible conditions, in particular with the cooperation of the National Red Cross (Red Crescent, Red Lion and Sun) Societies.
If the Parties to the conflict deem it necessary to restrict family correspondence, such restrictions shall be confined to the compulsory use of standard forms containing twenty-five freely chosen words, and to the limitation of the number of these forms despatched to one each month.
<< Previous
Up
Next >>
Commentaries
Commentary of 1958
GVALNWB1/ICRC
Share on Twitter
Share on Facebook
Share on Google+
Share on LinkedIn
Print this page