القاعدة ذات الصلة
South Africa
Practice Relating to Rule 100. Fair Trial Guarantees
Section F. Trial without undue delay
South Africa’s LOAC Teaching Manual (2008) states:
1.2 Reasons for compliance with LOAC [law of armed conflict] and basic principles thereof.
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Fundamental Norms and Values (rules)
The fundamental norms/val[u]es which underlie the LOAC are:
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- All persons who are captured or under the authority of an adverse party are entitled to, as a minimum, the protection and guarantees bestowed upon prisoners of war (POW).
South Africa, Advanced Law of Armed Conflict Teaching Manual, School of Military Justice, 1 April 2008, as amended to 25 October 2013, Learning Unit 1, pp. 13 and 16–17.
South Africa’s Constitution (1996), as amended to 2003, states:
35. Arrested, detained and accused persons
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(3) Every accused person has a right to a fair trial, which includes the right –
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(d) to have their trial begin and conclude without unreasonable delay;
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37. States of emergency.
(1) A state of emergency may be declared only in terms of an Act of Parliament and only when –
(a) the life of the nation is threatened by war, invasion, general insurrection, disorder, natural disaster or other public emergency; …
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(5) No Act of Parliament that authorises a declaration of a state of emergency, and no legislation enacted or other action taken in consequence of a declaration may permit or authorise –
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(c) any derogation from a section mentioned in column 1 of the Table of Non-Derogable Rights, to the extent indicated opposite that section in column 3 of the Table.
South Africa, Constitution, 1996, as amended to 2003, Sections 35(3)(d), 37(1)(a) and (5)(c).
In the “Table of Non-Derogable Rights”, the Constitution includes section 35, entitled “Arrested, detained and accused persons”, and states that the right is protected “[w]ith respect to … the rights in paragraphs (a) to (o) of subsection (3), excluding paragraph (d)”.
South Africa, Constitution, 1996, as amended to 2003, Section 37.
South Africa’s Implementation of the Geneva Conventions Act (2012) states: “A protected prisoner of war who is in the custody of the South African National Defence Force must be granted the protection of the [1949] Third [Geneva] Convention or the [1949] Fourth [Geneva] Convention, as the case may be.”
South Africa, Implementation of the Geneva Conventions Act, 2012, Section 12(2).
The Act defines a “protected prisoner of war” as a “person protected by the Third Convention or a person who is protected as a prisoner of war under [the 1977 Additional] Protocol I”.
South Africa, Implementation of the Geneva Conventions Act, 2012, Section 1.
