
Internment without trial is a draconian device adopted by democracies during emergencies. Australia and the USA used it in war-time, as did Britain under the 1939 Emergency Powers (Defence) Act. More recently it has been used in the Middle East and in Northern Ireland. Its introduction is an admission that normal democratic politics no longer prevail because it evokes the spectre of arbitrary government. Ireland serves as the ideal laboratory: during the nineteenth century 73 separate statutes of a coercive character were passed for Ireland and habeas corpus was suspended on four different occasions. Internment was a feature of security policy in Northern Ireland; it was used in 1920-4, 1931-4, 1938-45, and 1956-61. Its imposition aroused particular controversy when it was reintroduced on 9 August 1971. Of the initial 342 detained 116 were released within 48 hours. No loyalists were detained at first: only 109 suspected loyalists were interned in the period 1971-5—suspected republicans totalled 2,060. Interrogation techniques used in the beginning led to a European Court of Human Rights judgment in January 1978 that found against Britain for degrading and inhuman treatment. Not surprisingly the exercise led to huge alienation in the Catholic community. Internment failed miserably to control the violence: of the 172 who died violently 1971 only 28 were killed before 9 August. The RUC Chief Constable described it later as a ‘disaster’ and it acted as a tremendous boost for IRA recruitment. Conditions in the internment camps were to benefit the IRA where they operated under paramilitary structures. Once direct rule was imposed in March 1972 the authorities introduced a ‘quasi-judicial’ element into the equation but when a committee chaired by Lord Gardiner reported 1975 it said that the ‘procedures are unsatisfactory, or even farcical’. In essence, Gardiner buried internment 1975 by stating that it brought the law into contempt.
— Paul Arthur
Internment is the imprisonment or confinement[1] of people, commonly in large groups, without trial. The Oxford English Dictionary (1989) gives the meaning as: "The action of 'interning'; confinement within the limits of a country or place."
Most modern usage is about individuals, and there is a distinction between internment, which is being confined usually for preventive or political reasons, and imprisonment, which is being closely confined as a punishment for crime.
Internment also refers to the practice of neutral countries in time of war in detaining belligerent armed forces and equipment in their territories under the Second Hague Convention.[2]
Early civilizations such as Assyria used forced resettlement of populations as a means of controlling territory,[3] but it was not until much later in the late 19th and 20th centuries that records exist of groups of civilian non-combatants being concentrated into large prison camps.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights restricts the use of internment. Article 9 states that "No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile."
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An internment camp is a large detention center created for political opponents, enemy aliens, people with mental illness, members of specific ethnic or religious groups, civilian inhabitants of a critical war-zone, or other groups of people, usually during a war. The term is used for facilities where the inmates were selected by some generalized criteria, rather than detained as individuals after due process of law fairly applied by a judiciary.
As a result of the mistreatment of civilians interned during recent conflicts, the Fourth Geneva Convention was established in 1949 to provide for the protection of civilians during times of war "in the hands" of an enemy and under any occupation by a foreign power.[4] It was ratified by 194 nations. Prisoner-of-war camps are internment camps intended specifically for holding members of an enemy's armed forces as defined in the Third Geneva Convention, and the treatment of whom is specified in that Convention.
The Random House Dictionary defines the term "concentration camp" as: "a guarded compound for the detention or imprisonment of aliens, members of ethnic minorities, political opponents, etc.", and, the American Heritage Dictionary defines it as: "A camp where civilians, enemy aliens, political prisoners, and sometimes prisoners of war are detained and confined, typically under harsh conditions."
Polish historian Władysław Konopczyński has suggested the first concentration camps were created in Poland in the 18th century, during the Bar Confederation rebellion, when the Russian Empire established three concentration camps for Polish rebel captives awaiting deportation to Siberia.[5]
The earliest of these camps may have been those set up in the United States for Cherokee and other Native Americans in the 1830s; however, the term originated in the reconcentrados (reconcentration camps) set up by the Spanish military in Cuba during the Ten Years' War (1868–1878) and by the United States during the Philippine–American War (1899–1902).[6]
The English term "concentration camp" grew in prominence during the Second Boer War (1899–1902), when they were operated by the British in South Africa.[6][7]
There were a total of 45 tented camps built for Boer internees and 64 for black Africans. Of the 28,000 Boer men captured as prisoners of war, 25,630 were sent overseas. The vast majority of Boers remaining in the local camps were women and children.
Concentration camps were used in German South-West Africa during the Herero genocide between 1904 and 1907. The camp at Shark Island, Namibia was of the nature of an extermination camp, arguably the world's first.[8]
During the 20th century, the arbitrary internment of civilians by the state reached a climax with Nazi concentration camps (1933–1945). As a result, the term "concentration camp" carries many of the connotations of "death camp" or "extermination camp", and is sometimes used synonymously.
However, even Nazi concentration camps were not necessarily death camps. For example, some camps were sources of slave labor: the inmates were exploited rather than killed, although many were worked to death or killed for refusing to work.
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Dansk (Danish)
n. - internering
Nederlands (Dutch)
internering, opsluiting
Français (French)
n. - internement (politique)
Deutsch (German)
n. - Internierung
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - περιορισμός, εγκάθειρξη
Italiano (Italian)
internamento
Português (Portuguese)
n. - aprisionamento (m)
Русский (Russian)
интернирование
Español (Spanish)
n. - internación, internamiento
Svenska (Swedish)
n. - internering
中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
扣留, 收容
中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 扣留, 收容
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) اعتقال وبخاصه أثناء الحرب
עברית (Hebrew)
n. - מעצר, כליאה
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