The Geneva Conventions are a series of four international treaties (1949) and their three additional protocols that form the core of international humanitarian law. They establish legal standards for humanitarian treatment of non-combatants in war and protect people who are not or are no longer actively taking part in hostilities. This category includes not only civilians and civilian populations but also former combatants, such as prisoners of war and fighters rendered hors de combat due to injury, illness, shipwreck or those who have surrendered. The four 1949 Geneva Conventions, adopted in response to the inhumanities of World War II, updated and added to previous Geneva Conventions (1864, 1906, 1929).H.S. Levie, 1 Protection of War Victims xiii (1979). The 1949 Geneva Conventions address the treatment of sick and wounded soldiers in the field ("Geneva Convention I"), wounded, sick and shipwrecked soldiers at sea ("Geneva Convention II"), prisoners of war ("Geneva Convention III"), and civilians in time of war ("Geneva Convention IV"). In 1977, these rules were updated by two Additional Protocols, the first concerning international armed conflicts ("Additional Protocol I") and the second, non-international armed conflicts ("Additional Protocol II").
Aside from the UN Charter, the Geneva Conventions are among the most widely ratified international agreements. The four 1949 Geneva 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 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.
Much of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, "have come to be recognized as customary law; hence they apply regardless of whether parties to the conflicts have ratified" the conventions.Theodor Meron, Human Rights and Humanitarian Norms as Customary Law (Oxford, 1999), 41–62.
History The 1864 Geneva Convention
Historical context The 1864 Geneva Convention was instituted during a critical period in European political and military history. The American Civil War had been raging across the Atlantic since 1861, and would ultimately claim between 750,000 and 900,000 lives. Between the fall of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 and the rise of his nephew in the Italian campaign of 1859, the powers had maintained peace in western Europe.
Yet, with the 1853–1856 conflict in the Crimea, war had returned to Europe, and while those troubles were "in a distant and inaccessible region," the war in northern Italy was "so accessible from all parts of western Europe that it instantly filled with curious observers;" while the bloodshed was not excessive the sight of it was unfamiliar and shocking. Despite its intent of ameliorating the ravages of war, the inception of the 1864 Geneva Convention inaugurated "a renewal of military activity on a large scale, to which the people of western Europe…had not been accustomed since the first Napoleon had been eliminated."
Creation of the Red Cross and the 1864 Convention The movement for an international set of laws governing the treatment and care for the wounded and prisoners of war began when Swiss business man and — from this point onwards — relief activist Henry Dunant from Geneva went to visit wounded soldiers after the Battle of Solferino in 1859, fought between French-Piedmontese and Austrian armies in Northern Italy.
Dunant was outraged and shocked at the 40,000 wounded soldiers left on the field due to lack of facilities, personnel, and truces to give them medical aid. As a result Dunant returned to Geneva and published his book (A Memory of Solferino) in 1862, where he detailed the horrors of war. English version, full text online.See . He proposed: The establishment of a permanent relief agency for humanitarian aid in times of war The enactment of a government treaty recognizing the neutrality of the agency and allowing it to provide aid in a war zone In 1863, Dunant co-founded the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) with Swiss lawyer Gustave Moynier. The ICRC, while recognising that it is "primarily the duty and responsibility of a nation to safeguard the health and physical well-being of its people", knew there would always, especially in times of war, be a "need for voluntary agencies to supplement…the official agencies charged with these responsibilities in every country." To ensure that its mission was widely accepted, it required a body of rules to govern its activities and those of the involved belligerent parties.
Conference and adoption Only one year later, the Swiss government invited the governments of all European countries and the United States, Brazil, and Mexico to attend an official diplomatic conference. Overall, 16 countries sent a total of 26 delegates to Geneva. The meeting was presided over by Swiss General Guillaume Henri Dufour. The conference occurred in the Alabama room at Geneva's Hotel de Ville (city hall).
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", making it the first codified international treaty that covered sick and wounded soldiers on the battlefield. Representatives of 12 states signed the convention that day:
Following the initial signing, additional nations acceded to the treaty:
The United Kingdom of Norway and Sweden signed in December. The United Kingdom signed a year later in 1865. The Ottoman government ratified the treaty on 5 July 1865.International_Red_Cross_and_Red_Crescent_Movement The Grand Duchy of Hesse, the Kingdom of Bavaria and Austrian Empire signed in 1866 following the conclusion of the Austro-Prussian War. The United States of America signed in 1882.
The original document is preserved in the Swiss Federal Archives in Bern. In the past it has been loaned to the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum in Geneva.
For his role in creating the Red Cross and establishing the convention, Henry Dunant became corecipient of the first Nobel Peace Prize in 1901.The story of an idea , film on the creation of the Red Cross, Red Crescent Movement and the Geneva Conventions.
Subsequent expansion efforts 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.
The 1906 Geneva Convention
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 based on experiences from conflicts like the Russo-Japanese War.
The treaty added clearer definitions for the rights of medical personnel and captured medical staff.
It remained in force until 1970 when Costa Rica acceded to the 1949 Geneva Conventions.
The 1929 Geneva Conventions
The 1929 conference yielded two conventions, both of which were signed on 27 July 1929:
The Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armies in the Field, which was the third version to replace the original convention of 1864. The Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, which was adopted after World War I exposed the deficiencies in the protection of prisoners of war under the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907. It sought to supplement rather than replace the preceding Hague Conventions.
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..
Geneva Conventions in the modern era 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.
This resulted in the adoption of four new treaties, two of which revised the contents of the 1929 Geneva Conventions and two of which addressed novel subject matter. These treaties were first adopted in 1949 and have been ratified, in whole or with reservations, by 196 countries. They remain in force today, and are collectively referred to as the "Geneva Conventions of 1949" or simply the "Geneva Conventions".
The 1949 Geneva Conventions The titles and subject matter of the four 1949 Geneva Conventions are as follows: 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.
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.