Internment

The American Heritage Dictionary defines the term concentration camp as: "A camp where persons are confined, usually without hearings and typically under harsh conditions, often as a result of their membership in a group which the government has identified as dangerous or undesirable."^[10]

Although the first example of civilian internment may date as far back as the 1830s,^[11] the English term concentration camp was first used in order to refer to the reconcentration camps (Spanish:reconcentrados) which were set up by the Spanish military in Cuba during the Ten Years' War (1868–1878).^[12][13] The label was applied yet again to camps set up by the United States during the Philippine–American War (1899–1902).^[14] And expanded usage of the concentration camp label continued, when the British set up camps during the Second Boer War (1899–1902) in South Africa for interning Boers during the same time period.^[12][15]

During the 20th century, the arbitrary internment of civilians by the state reached its most extreme forms in the Soviet Gulag system of concentration camps (1918–1991)^[16] and the Nazi concentration camps (1933–1945). The Soviet system was the first applied by a government on its own citizens.^[13] The Gulag consisted in over 30,000 camps for most of its existence (1918–1991) and detained some 18 million from 1929 until 1953,^[16] which is only a third of its 73-year lifespan. The Nazi concentration camp system was extensive, with as many as 15,000 camps^[17] and at least 715,000 simultaneous internees.^[18] The total number of casualties in these camps is difficult to determine, but the deliberate policy of extermination through labor in many of the camps was designed to ensure that the inmates would die of starvation, untreated disease and summary executions within set periods of time.^[19] Moreover, Nazi Germany established six extermination camps, specifically designed to kill millions of people, primarily by gassing.^[20][21]

As a result, the term "concentration camp" is sometimes conflated with the concept of an "extermination camp" and historians debate whether the term "concentration camp" or the term "internment camp" should be used to describe other examples of civilian internment.^[4]

The "concentration camp" label continues to see expanded use for cases post-World War II, for instance in relation to British camps in Kenya during the Mau Mau rebellion (1952–1960),^[22][23] and camps set up in Chile during the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973–1990).^[24] According to the United States Department of Defense as many as 3 million Uyghurs and members of other Muslim minority groups are being held in China's re-education camps which are located in the Xinjiang region and which American news reports often label as concentration camps.^[25][26] The camps were established in the late 2010s under Chinese Communist Party general secretary Xi Jinping's administration.^[27][28]

Scholars have debated the efficacy of internment as a counterinsurgency tactic. A 2023 study found that internment during the Irish war of independence led to greater grievances among Irish rebels and led them to fight longer in the war.^[29]

Internment also refers to the detainment of combatants and equipment of a belligerent by a neutral state.^[5] During a conflict, combatants of a belligerent state that enter the territory of a neutral state should be either expelled or interned. When interned, the neutral state is responsible for ensuring the well-being of the combatants as well as ensuring they or their equipment cannot participate in the conflict until hostilities cease. ^[66][67][68]

The neutral state can hold interned personal in camps or other secure places and, at the discretion of the neutral State may be given parole but cannot be allowed to leave neutral territory. The internees must be fed and clothed, and allowed relief supplies. The belligerent State is responsible at the end of hostilities for covering the costs incurred by the neutral state. The conditions the internees are held in should be based on an agreement between the neutral State and the belligerent State, but if there is no agreement, they must be at the minimum treatment equivalent to that of POWs under the Third Geneva Convention.^[68]

If the neutral state is unable or unwilling to carry out internment or expulsion of belligerent forces within its territory the adverse party is entitled to undertake hot pursuit and attack the belligerent forces within neutral territory and seek compensation from the neutral State for a breach of neutrality. ^[68]