Geneva Conventions

The four Geneva Conventions and their three additional protocols apply to situations of (non-) international armed conflict. They provide rules that are applicable during armed conflict. The provisions aim to protect particular properties as well as people that are not (or no longer) taking part in the hostilities. Common article 3 provides a minimum set of rules that apply to both international and non-international armed conflict. All states have adopted the Geneva Conventions.

The Geneva Conventions

1. Wounded and Sick in Armed Forces in the Field (1949, first Geneva Convention)
2. Wounded, Sick and Shipwrecked Members of Armed Forces at Sea (1949, second Geneva Convention)
3. Treatment of Prisoners of War (1949, third Geneva Convention)
4. Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (1949, fourth Geneva Convention)

The Additional Protocols to the Geneva Conventions

• Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (1977, Protocol I)
• Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts (1977, Protocol II)
• Adoption of an Additional Distinctive Emblem (2005, Protocol III)

Main provisions of the Geneva Conventions

Article 2 Application in case of international armed conflict

Article 3 Application in non-international armed conflict

• Persons taking no active part in the hositilities, including members of armed forces who have laid down their arms and those placed hors de combat by sickness, wounds, detention, or any other cause, shall in all circumstances be treated humanely, without any adverse distinction founded on race, colour, religion or faith, sex, birth or wealth, or any other similar criteria. To this end, the following acts are and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever with respect to the above-mentioned persons:
  • violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture;
  • taking of hostages;
  • outrages upon dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment; and
  • the passing of sentences and the carrying out of executions without previous judgment pronounced by a regularly constituted court, affording all the judicial guarentees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples.
• The wounded and sick shall be collected and cared for.

Grave breaches

The most outrageous violations of the the Geneva Conventions are called grave breaches. Grave breaches committed to an inidividual protected under the concentions are:

• willful killing, torture or inhumane treatment, including biological experiments;
• willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health;
• compelling a protected person to serve in the armed forces of a hostile power;
• willfully depriving a protected person of the right to a fair trial if accused of a war crime.
• taking of hostages;
• extensive destruction and appropriation of property not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly
• unlawful deportation, transfer or confinement.

Universal jurisdiction

Nations who are party to the Geneva Conventions and their additional protocols must enact and enforce legislation penalizing any of these crimes. Nations are also obligated to search for persons who have alledgedly commited these crimes, or persons having ordered them to be committed. They should bring them to trial regardless of their nationality and regardless of the place where the crimes took place. This is called the application of universal jurisdiction. Also the United Nations may assert its auhority and jurisdiction to apply the principle of universal jurisdiction. This derives from the UN Charter.