HQ ARRC Study Day: Corps Detainee Ops

INNSWORTH, United Kingdom - Headquarters Allied Rapid Reaction Corps (HQ ARRC) conducted a study day here, May 2, to review procedures for the handling of detainees and prisoners of war and how that might affect the its current role as the Land Component Command for the NATO Response Force this year and in the future. A complex and intricate issue, the day brought together both military and civilian experts to discuss lessons from history and best practices for navigating such a contentious field.

"On [Exercise] Trident Juncture the commander identified that we needed education on handling of captured persons and prisoners of war,” said UK Colonel Nadine Parkes MBE, Provost Marshal for the ARRC, speaking about the ARRC's major NATO exercise last fall. "So we brought in subject matter experts to talk about captured persons capability and planning consideration in multinational and coalition environments.”

Those experts included an armed forces delegate from the International Committee of the Red Cross, as well as the head of the UK military’s Operational Law Branch, giving the personnel gathered a diverse spectrum of knowledge and preparing the ARRC to look ahead to their future role as a corps headquarters.

"It’s to do with how we handle, and plan to handle, captured personnel including prisoners of war and other people that we may have to detain, i.e. criminals or security threats,” Parkes added. "The next step of it is including this in the planning for our corps warfighting scenario and exercising the concept of taking large numbers of prisoners of war.”

Story by Allied Rapid Reaction Corps Public Affairs Office