The Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols form the core of international humanitarian law, which regulates the conduct of armed conflict and seeks to limit its effects.
They protect people not taking part in hostilities and those who are no longer doing so. Updated Commentary on the Third Geneva Convention. Updated Commentary on the First Geneva Convention. Updated Commentary on the Second Geneva Convention. The Geneva Conventions of and their Additional Protocols. This agreement extended the protections described in the first Convention to shipwrecked soldiers and other naval forces, including special protections afforded to hospital ships.
One of the treaties created during the Convention, this defined "Prisoner of War," and accorded such prisoners proper and humane treatment as specified by the first Convention. Specifically, it required POWs to give only their names, ranks, and serial numbers to their captors. Nations party to the Convention may not use torture to extract information from POWs. Under this Convention, civilians are afforded the same protections from inhumane treatment and attack afforded to sick and wounded soldiers in the first Convention.
Further, additional regulations regarding the treatment of civilians were introduced. Specifically, it prohibits attacks on civilian hospitals, medical transports, etc. It also specifies the rights of internees POWs and saboteurs. Finally, it discusses how occupiers are to treat an occupied populace. The signing Nations agreed to further restrictions on the treatment of "protected persons" according to the original Conventions, and clarification of the terms used in the Conventions was introduced.
Finally, new rules regarding the treatment of the deceased, cultural artifacts, and dangerous targets such as dams and nuclear installations were produced. In this Protocol, the fundamentals of "humane treatment" were further clarified.
Additionally, the rights of interned persons were specifically enumerated, providing protections for those charged with crimes during wartime. It also identified new protections and rights of civilian populations. Adopted in to add another emblem, the "red crystal," to the list of emblems used to identify neutral humanitarian aide workers. Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions covered, for the first time, situations of non-international armed conflicts. Types vary greatly and include traditional civil wars or internal armed conflicts that spill over into other States , as well as internal conflicts in which third-party States or multinational forces intervene alongside the government.
Common Article 3 functions like a mini-Convention within the larger Geneva Convention itself, and establishes fundamental rules from which no derogation is permitted, containing the essential rules of the Geneva Convention in a condensed format, and making them applicable to non-international conflicts.
The Geneva Conventions provide for universal jurisdiction , as opposed to a more traditional and limited territorial jurisdiction that was designed to respect the sovereignty of States over their citizens. The doctrine of universal jurisdiction is based on the notion that some crimes, such as genocide , crimes against humanity , torture , and war crimes , are so exceptionally grave that they affect the fundamental interests of the international community as a whole.
It renders the convicts or accused of such crimes to the jurisdiction of all signatory States , regardless of their nationality or territoriality of their crime. Every State bound by the treaties is under the legal obligation to search for and prosecute those in its territory suspected of committing such crimes, regardless of the nationality of the suspect or victim, or of the place where the act was allegedly committed. The State may hand the suspect over to another State or an international tribunal for trial.
Where domestic law does not allow for the exercise of universal jurisdiction, a State must introduce the necessary domestic legislative provisions before it can do so, and must actually exercise the jurisdiction , unless it hands the suspect over to another country or international tribunal.
Despite being signatory to the Conventions, there are some notable and often-criticized U. The Geneva Conventions have been ratified by all Member States of the United Nations, while the Additional Protocols and other international humanitarian law treaties have not yet reached the same level of acceptance. However, many of the rules contained in these treaties have been considered as part of customary law and, as such, are binding on all States and other parties to the conflict , whether or not States have ratified the treaties themselves.
In addition, many rules of customary international law apply in both international and non-international armed conflict, expanding in this way the protection afforded in non-international armed conflicts, which are regulated only by common article 3 of the four Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocol II. War crimes are those violations of international humanitarian law treaty or customary law that incur individual criminal responsibility under international law.
As a result, and in contrast to the crimes of genocide and crimes against humanity, war crimes must always take place in the context of an armed conflict, either international or non-international. What constitutes a war crime may differ, depending on whether an armed conflict is international or non-international. For example, Article 8 of the Rome Statute categorises war crimes as follows:.
From a more substantive perspective, war crimes could be divided into: a war crimes against persons requiring particular protection; b war crimes against those providing humanitarian assistance and peacekeeping operations; c war crimes against property and other rights; d prohibited methods of warfare; and e prohibited means of warfare.
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