Humanitarian Law

Where Can You Find International Humanitarian Law?

The four Geneva Conventions of 1949 are the core of international humanitarian law. The Geneva Conventions were adopted to limit the human suffering in times of armed conflict.

The first one was adopted in 1864 giving protection to wounded and sick soldiers in times of armed conflict on land. The second convention gives protection to wounded, sick, and shipwrecked in armed conflict at sea. After the atrocities committed against prisoners during the First World War, the international community adopted the third Geneva Convention in 1929 to give protection to the treatment of prisoners of war (POW). In 1949 the first three were revised and a fourth was adopted to give protection to civilians and populations living under occupation, based on the experiences of the Second World War.

To ICRC and the four Geneva Conventions

The First Additional Protocol from 1977 extends the protection of civilians, and also includes rules on the conduct of hostilities which defines what weapons and methods can be used. It generally applies in international armed conflicts and is obligatory on the states that have signed and ratified it. However, article 75 reflects international customary law which is binding on all states, regardless of any signatories.
To ICRC and the First Additional Protocol
To ICRC and Article 75

The Second Additional Protocol expands the scope of article 3, common to the four Geneva Conventions, and gives additional protection in internal armed conflicts. It generally applies in internal armed conflicts and is also binding only on states that have signed and ratified it. Some articles are also regarded as international customary law, for example, article 7 which relates to protection of medical and religious persons.
To ICRC and the Second Additional Protocol
To ICRC and Article 7

As of August 2006, 194 states - all states in the world- have ratified the Geneva Conventions (there are 192 member states in the UN); the Additional First Protocol have been ratified by 166 states, and the Second Additional Protocol by 162 states.

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Other agreements

There are other agreements or conventions that prohibit the use of certain weapons and ways of conducting military operations. The following are examples of such treaties in chronological order of adoption:

To ICRC and the 1899 Hague Declaration concerning expanding bullets

To ICRC and the 1907 Hague Conventions of 1907 including the annexed Regulations to the fourth Hague Convention (Hague Regulations)

To ICRC and the 1925 Geneva Protocol for the prohibition of the use in war of asphyxiating, poisonous or other gases and of bacteriological methods of warfare

To ICRC and the 1972 Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BWC)

To ICRC and the 1980 Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) with five protocols

To ICRC and the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC)

Revised
25/10/2006 Netta Amar ihl_diakonia@palnet.com

Easy Guide to International Humanitarian Law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (oPt)

Humanitarian Law

Where Can You Find International Humanitarian Law?

Other agreements