Geneva Conventions


The Geneva Conventions are a series of four international agreements that form the core of international humanitarian law, establishing legal standards for the treatment of non-combatants in war. Negotiated in the aftermath of World War II, the Geneva Conventions of 1949 consist of four agreements, which replaced three earlier humanitarian conventions of 1906 and 1929 and added two new conventions. The First Geneva Convention addresses the treatment of sick and wounded field soldiers, the Second Geneva Convention addresses the treatment of sick and wounded sailors, the Third Geneva Convention addresses the treatment of prisoners of war, and the Fourth Geneva Convention addresses the treatment of civilians during armed conflict.
Aside from the UN Charter, the Geneva Conventions are among the most widely ratified international agreements. The 1949 conventions were ratified, in their entirety or with reservations, by 196 countries. Much of the international humanitarian law contained in the Geneva Conventions has become customary international law, and therefore would apply to all states and non-state armed groups, even those that are not a party to the Geneva Conventions. The legal obligations created under the Geneva Conventions are somewhat different from other international treaties in that a breach of the Geneva Conventions by one party does not furnish a directly affected party with the option to cease complying with its treaty obligations.
The Geneva Conventions define the basic rights and protections afforded to those non-combatants who fulfill the criteria of being protected persons. The Geneva Conventions concern only protected non-combatants in war. The Geneva Conventions define the rights of civilians, prisoners of war, and military personnel; establish protections for the wounded, sick, and shipwrecked; and provide humanitarian protections for civilians in and around war zones. The use of conventional weapons in wartime is addressed by the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 and the 1980 Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, while the use of biological and chemical weapons in international armed conflicts is addressed by the 1925 Geneva Protocol.
Violations of these earlier conventions constituted some of the grounds for the judgments of the Nuremberg, Tokyo, and other war crimes tribunals. For grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions, states are obligated to establish and exercise universal jurisdiction. All four of the 1949 Geneva Conventions — in Articles 49, 50, 129, and 146 — all contain provisions obligating parties to search for alleged violators, regardless of their nationality or place of offense, and to either try violators before their own courts or to hand them over to another party for trial. This principle of universal jurisdiction is rooted in the belief that grave breaches of the Geneva Convention are such serious crimes that all states have an obligation to bring those responsible to justice.

History

The Swiss businessman Henry Dunant went to visit wounded soldiers after the Battle of Solferino in 1859. He was shocked by the lack of facilities, personnel, and medical aid available to help these soldiers. As a result, he published his book, A Memory of Solferino, in 1862, on the horrors of war. His wartime experiences inspired Dunant to propose:
  • A permanent relief agency for humanitarian aid in times of war
  • A government treaty recognizing the neutrality of the agency and allowing it to provide aid in a war zone
The former proposal led to the establishment of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva. The latter led to the 1864 Geneva Convention, which was the first codified international treaty that covered the sick and wounded soldiers on the battlefield. On 22 August 1864, the Swiss government invited the governments of all European countries, as well as the United States, Brazil, and Mexico, to attend an official diplomatic conference. Overall, 16 countries sent a total of 26 delegates to Geneva. On 22 August 1864, the conference adopted the first Geneva Convention "for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded in Armies in the Field.” Representatives of 12 states and kingdoms signed the convention:
For both of these accomplishments, Henry Dunant became corecipient of the first Nobel Peace Prize in 1901.
On 20 October 1868 the first unsuccessful attempt to expand the 1864 treaty was undertaken. With the 'Additional Articles relating to the Condition of the Wounded in War' an attempt was initiated to clarify some rules of the 1864 convention and to extend them to maritime warfare. The Articles were signed but were only ratified by the Netherlands and the United States of America. The Netherlands later withdrew their ratification. The protection of the victims of maritime warfare was later realized by the third Hague Convention of 1899 and the tenth Hague Convention of 1907.
In 1906, thirty-five states attended a conference convened by the Swiss government. On 6 July 1906 it resulted in the adoption of the "Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armies in the Field", which improved and supplemented, for the first time, the 1864 Convention. It remained in force until 1970 when Costa Rica acceded to the 1949 Geneva Conventions.
The 1929 conference yielded two conventions that were signed on 27 July 1929. One, the "Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armies in the Field," was the third version to replace the original convention of 1864. The other was adopted after experiences in World War I had shown the deficiencies in the protection of prisoners of war under the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907. The "Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War" was not to replace these earlier conventions signed at The Hague; rather it supplemented them.
There was considerable debate over whether the Geneva Convention should prohibit indiscriminate forms of warfare, such as aerial bombings, nuclear bombings and starvation, but no agreement was reached on those forms of violence.
Inspired by the wave of humanitarian and pacifistic enthusiasm following World War II and the outrage towards the war crimes disclosed by the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials, a series of conferences were held in 1949 reaffirming, expanding and updating the prior Geneva and Hague Conventions. It yielded four distinct conventions:
  • The First Geneva Convention "for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armed Forces in the Field" was the fourth update of the original 1864 convention and replaced the 1929 convention on the same subject matter.
  • The Second Geneva Convention "for the Amelioration of the Condition of Wounded, Sick and Shipwrecked Members of Armed Forces at Sea" replaced the Hague Convention of 1907. It was the first Geneva Convention on the protection of the victims of maritime warfare and mimicked the structure and provisions of the First Geneva Convention.
  • The Third Geneva Convention "relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War" replaced the 1929 Geneva Convention that dealt with prisoners of war.
  • The Fourth Geneva Convention "relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War" was the first Geneva Convention not to deal with combatants. The 1899 and 1907 Hague Conventions had already contained some provisions on the protection of civilians and occupied territory. Article 154 specifically provides that the Fourth Geneva Convention is supplementary to these provisions in the Hague Conventions.
Despite the length of these documents, they were found over time to be incomplete. The nature of armed conflicts had changed with the beginning of the Cold War era, leading many to believe that the 1949 Geneva Conventions were addressing a largely extinct reality: on the one hand, most armed conflicts had become internal, or civil wars, while on the other, most wars had become increasingly asymmetric. Modern armed conflicts were inflicting an increasingly higher toll on civilians, which brought the need to provide civilian persons and objects with tangible protections in time of combat, bringing a much needed update to the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907.
In light of these developments, two Protocols were adopted in 1977 that extended the terms of the 1949 Conventions with additional protections. In 2005, a third brief Protocol was added establishing an additional protective sign for medical services, the Red Crystal, as an alternative to the ubiquitous Red Cross and Red Crescent emblems, for those countries that find them objectionable.

Commentaries

The Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949: Commentary is a series of four volumes of books published between 1952 and 1958 containing commentaries to each of the four Geneva Conventions. The series was edited by Jean Pictet who was the vice-president of the ICRC. The Commentaries are often relied upon to provide authoritative interpretation of the articles.

Contents

The Geneva Conventions are rules that apply only in times of armed conflict and seek to protect people who are not or are no longer taking part in hostilities.
The First Geneva Convention dealt with the treatment of wounded and sick armed forces in the field. The Second Geneva Convention dealt with the sick, wounded, and shipwrecked members of armed forces at sea. The Third Geneva Convention dealt with the treatment of prisoners of war during times of conflict. The Fourth Geneva Convention dealt with the treatment of civilians and their protection during wartime.
Individuals who fulfill the criteria of protected persons in international armed conflicts are protected by the 1949 conventions. Those not listed as protected persons in such conflicts are instead protected by international human rights law and general treaties concerning the legal status of aliens in belligerent nations.
In addition, there are provisions such as Article 15 of the First Geneva Convention which provides that, "whenever circumstances permit, an armistice or a suspension of fire shall be arranged, or local arrangements made, to permit the removal, exchange and transport of the wounded left on the battlefield.” Another provision, such as Article 16 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, states that, “as far as military considerations allow, each Party to the conflict shall facilitate the steps taken to search for the killed and wounded, to assist the shipwrecked and other persons exposed to grave danger, and to protect them against pillage and ill-treatment.”