International Convention and legislation 1.pptx

international Convention and legislation International humanitarian law ipu notes

1. Dcumentation Rules Relating to Wars

2. The aforesaid discussion shows the efforts to regulate warfare existed to a greater or lesser extent from the very ancient period. Those initiatives were not sufficient to regulate the conducts of parties during warfare until these rules had been documented in any instrument. Regarding documentation of the laws of war first initiative was taken in 1864 following the proposal of Henry Dunant in his book “A Memory of Solferino ”. Dunant wrote this book witnessing a bloody war between French and Austrian Armies in 1863 where about 38,000 people were killed or wounded in 15 hours. In this devastating war, doctor or nurse or medical or auxiliary personnel or stretcher bearer none was beyond the attack of enemy  (Draper, 1979: p. 9) . Dunant, in the book “A Memory of Solferino ” described his experiences what he witnessed in the battle of solferino and simultaneously in his book he made two proposals firstly, “each state should establish in time of peace a relief society to aid the army medical services in time of war” and secondly, “state should conclude a treaty that would facilitate the activities of these relief societies and guarantee a better treatment of the wounded”. In next year the International Committee for the Relief of Military Wounded was established with its permanent seat in Geneva. The great success of the committee was that, within a very short time, it succeeded to persuade the Swiss government to convene an international conference

3. The Swiss Government convened the conference in August 1864 and adopted the “Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded in Armies in the Field in 1864”. Prior to adopting this international document, an attempt was taken in 1863 to gather laws and customs of war by Francis Lieber in his valuable document “The Lieber Code” promulgated as General Orders No. 100 by President Lincoln. The Code (1863) provides detailed rules on the entire range of warfare.

4. n 1868, the St. Petersburg Declaration was adopted and it was stated that only the legitimate object which the State shall endeavor to do during the war is to weaken the military forces of the enemy so the target would be only the combatants and combatants only. To achieve this objective it is sufficient to disable the greatest possible number of combatants. It has also been stated that this object would be exceeded by the employment of arms which uselessly aggravate the sufferings of disabled men, or render their death inevitable. To this end, the declaration outlawed certain fragmenting, explosive and incendiary ammunition  (Declaration Renouncing the Use, in Time of War, of Certain Explosive Projectiles Saint Petersburg, 1868) .

5. On the initiative of Czar Alexander II of Russia, the delegates of the 15 countries met in Brussels on 27 th  July, 1874 intending to examine the draft submitted by the Russian Government for consideration regarding codification of the LOW. The conference adopted the draft titled “The Brussels Declaration” with some minor changes but it was not ratified due to unwillingness of most of the countries regarding binding effects of the document. Subsequently, at the initiative of Russian citizen Tsar Nicholas II, the world community convened two conferences at Hague, Netherlands, in 1899 and 1907 respectively. Both the conferences discussed on disarmament, laws of war and war crime and banned some other weapons and methods of war including “Dum Dum” bullets, (which expand in the body), poison weapons, and attacks from hot air balloons and it set out rules for the humane treatment of prisoners of war, occupied territory, and neutral parties. The first conference opened on 18 May, 1899 and signed six important documents on 9 July, 1899 (came into force in 1900). On the suggestion of US President Theodore Roosevelt, in 1904, the European community initiated to convene the second Hague conference but it did not happen due to war between Russia and Japan and later on it was held from 15 June to 18 October 1907. The conference intended to modify and enlarge the conventions adopted in 1899 and simultaneously initiated to add some new provisions especially on naval warfare but it could not be done due to the strong opposition of Germany, yet some important 14 conventions and regulations have been signed.

6.  third conference was planned to be held in 1914 and rescheduled for 1915 was not held due to the First World War on 28 July, 1914. In the First World War, the provisions of the Hague Conventions had apparently been violated by the parties of the war. During the World War I, it became vivid that there were huge deficiencies and lack of precision in the Hague Regulations of 1899 and 1907. Instantly during the subsistence of the war some special agreements were made between belligerents in Berne in 1917 and 1918 and after the end of First World War, the world community, observing the devastating and horrified scenario, was much concerned to save the world from any further war and to this end they established the League of Nations under the treaty of Versailles 1919 with the objectives to promote international co-operation and to achieve international peace and security (Preamble,  The Covenant of the League of Nations, 1919 ).

7. Later on, under the auspices of the League of Nations, a conference was held in Geneva from 4 May to 17 June 1925. In this conference two documents were signed: ( i ) “the Convention for the Supervision of the International Trade in Arms, Munitions and Implements of War which has not entered into force, and (ii) the Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare.” ICRC started to re-think the treatment of prisoner of war that led to the preparation of another international treaty further defining the status of prisoners of war. In 1921 in the International Red Cross Conference in Geneva, they expressed a wish for the formation of a special convention for the treatment of prisoners of war and subsequently adopted a draft convention on the treatment of prisoners of war. That draft Convention was submitted to the Diplomatic Conference held in 1929 in Geneva where the “  Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War 1929 ” was adopted and entered into effect on June 19, 1931. After several years the most horrified war of the world history was observed by the world for about six years from 1939 to 1945 known as the Second World War. It is estimated that about 50 million to 85 million fatalities resulted in this deadliest AC in human history  (James, 2009: p. 49) . About 40 million civilians lost their lives in this dangerous war. This massive deportation and murder of the civilians as well as taking and killing hostages drew the international attention on the protection of civilians.