Introduction
The Geneva Conventions are international treaties designed for protection of victims of war, including wounded and sick military personnel, prisoners of war, and the civilian population in areas of conflict.
The Geneva Conventions were the outgrowth of a plan proposed by Henry Dunant, a Swiss business- man, who was shocked by the pitiable condition of the wounded soldiers he saw on the battlefield at Solferino, Italy, in 1859. This plan resulted in the forming of a Committee of Five, a forerunner of the International Committee of the Red Cross, and in the drafting of the First Geneva Convention of 1864, a pact extending the principle of fair and humane treatment to the wounded and sick military personnel in land war (Meyrowitz, 1-68).
Between 1864 and 1949, other conventions were ratified by participating nations, including the Second Convention, 1907, which established rules for the protection of armed forces wounded at sea, and the Third Convention, 1929, which provided for the protection of prisoners of war. In 1949, the three existing Conventions were revised, and a Fourth, for the protection of civilians in time of war, was added. Two additional Protocols to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 were adopted by the Diplomatic Conference of Governments in 1977. The first reaffirms and expands the rule for the protection of war victims, especially the civilian population, and the second supplements and develops the rule of protection for victims of non-international armed conflict. The International Committee of the Red Cross is the all-Swiss group of some 25 citizens that serves as a neutral intermediary between belligerent countries in carrying out the terms of the Conventions. The four Geneva Conventions of 1949 have been translated into 30 languages and place specific obligations on the more than 140 governments that have ratified them (David, 111-146).
The.....
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