Geneva Conventions

About Geneva Conventions:

• They are a set of four treaties which include more than 400 articles, setting out detailed rules for the treatment of prisoners, protecting hospitals and medical staff, allowing humanitarian aid and prohibiting torture, rape and sexual violence.
• It was formalised in 1949 by the United Nations.
• There are three additional protocols, the first two of which were formalised in 1977 and the third in 2005.
• The focus of the Conventions is the treatment of non-combatants and prisoners of war and not the use of conventional or biological and chemical weapons, the use of which is governed respectively by The Hague Conventions and the Geneva Protocol.

List of conventions:

• The First Geneva Convention:
  • It protects wounded and sick soldiers on land during war.
  • It is also applicable on medical and religious personnel, medical units and medical transports.
• The Second Geneva Convention:
  • It protects wounded, sick and shipwrecked military personnel at sea during war.
  • This Convention replaced the Hague Convention of 1907 for the Adaptation to Maritime Warfare of the Principles of the Geneva Convention.
• The Third Geneva Convention
  • It applies to prisoners of war.
  • The Convention establishes the principle that prisoners of war shall be released and repatriated without delay after the cessation of active hostilities.
• The Fourth Geneva Convention
  • It protects civilians, including those in occupied territory.
  • It contains a short section concerning the general protection of populations against certain consequences of war, without addressing the conduct of hostilities.