Prisonniers de guerre: quand la nationalité met une distance entre l'Etat et ses ressortissants. ; Prisoners of war: when the element of nationality creates a distance between a State and its citizens.

Under Article 4 of the third Geneva Convention of 1949 relative to the treatment of prisoners of war (GCIII), prisoners of war are, inter alia, those combatants who have fallen into the power of the enemy. Article 4 of GCIII requires no condition of nationality in order to beneficiate from the status of prisoner of war. However, it has regularly been argued that the own nationals of the Detaining Power are not prisoners of war. This condition of non-nationality has appeared in national and international jurisprudence, in state practice but has also been invoked by eminent international humanitarian law experts. Based on this view, the nationals of the Detaining power fall outside the scope of protection of GCIII. In doing so, the nationality of the captured combatant creates a distance between him and his power of origin during an international armed conflict.