A new initiative aims to adapt prisoner of war rules to digital realities and recent conflicts, with international consultations planned ahead of May’s IHL conference.

The Coordinating Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War has developed a concept for amendments to the Third Geneva Convention, aimed at regulating the treatment of prisoners. The working title of the initiative is “Kyiv Protocol”.

Bohdan Okhrimenko, head of the Secretariat of the Coordinating Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, spoke about the details in an interview.

“Indeed, the Geneva Conventions require revision and additions. The Coordinating Headquarters has developed a project for amendments to the Third Geneva Convention. We also have some proposals for certain sections of international humanitarian law regarding the detention of prisoners of war”

– Bohdan Okhrimenko

According to Okhrimenko, the current documents envisage paper correspondence of prisoners, while the digitization of all these processes has long since taken place.

He said that the Coordinating Headquarters’ proposals have the working title “Kyiv Protocol.” The military-political leadership of Ukraine has considered them. In this regard, the Coordinating Headquarters has had communication with the ICRC, and in May a fourth conference on the improvement of international humanitarian law is anticipated.

Prospects and Future Steps of the Kyiv Protocol

“The time has long since come to review the rules for the treatment of prisoners of war, the Third and Fourth Geneva Conventions, which pertain to civilians,” concluded Okhrimenko.

This year the Coordinating Headquarters has returned 832 military personnel and civilians from Russian captivity. In total, since the start of the full-scale invasion, 9,048 citizens have been returned from Russian captivity.

In February this year, President Volodymyr Zelensky said that about seven thousand Ukrainians remain in Russian captivity.

Such initiatives aim to improve the protection of prisoners of war in accordance with modern international humanitarian law and adapt it to the realities of contemporary conflicts.