Four Geneva Conventions: What To Do In A Time Of War

The Third Geneva Convention is probably the most recognized and important treaty concerning prisoners of war to ever be put down on paper that is recognized by the world over. Though this treaty is very thorough and complete in its wording regarding those that are affected and bound by its wording, there still is one major defect in the treaty that needs to be rectified and dealt with. This flaw is that there is no independent court body or commission that oversees abuses by parties against others in regards to their mistreatment or torture. Persons who find themselves at the hands of captors only have international courts or commissions as well as domestic courts to hear their cases. This can cause an untimely delay in hearing these cases,

The detention camp has been classified as a human rights violation due to the unjust and torturous treatment of inmates by the guards and employees during interrogation sessions. Methods that infringe basic human rights include force-feeding hunger strikes, sensory; sleep deprivation, sexual assault, and lack of privacy, torture, speech and waterboarding. Inmates were recognized as ‘enemy combatants’ with no particular evidence. Moreover they were left in small cells of wire mesh, which were no larger than a few square meters, and they did not have the freedom to practice their faith. Force-feeding inmates whilst on hunger strikes, again violated article 3 of the Geneva conventions, and has been recognized by the international committee of

     This definition is a very loose interpretation of the meaning of Prisoners of War (POWs). POWs throughout history have received harsh and brutal treatment. Prisoners received everything from torture to execution. However, in recent times efforts have been made to reduce these treatments and to get humane treatment for POWs. These attempts include the Geneva Convention of 1949. Unfortunately, during the Vietnam Conflict, these “rules” of war were not always obeyed, as they are now.

The Geneva Convention was a series of international treaties concluded between 1864 and 1949, for the sole purpose of improving

It’s amazing how far United States have come along when it comes to caring for an individual that you don’t know, yet you are doing everything in your power to save someone’s life. American Red Cross was founded by Clara Barton on May 21, 1881, but before the American Red Cross came into America it was and international movement that was founded by a young Swiss man named Henry Dunant. To know that 40,000 men are laying dead or alive and wounded from a war that soldiers fought for us in the civil war, yet there were no medical attempts to save lives, made Dunant organize local people to help wounded soldiers. The locals helped with wounded soldiers by feeding, and comforting them when in need. In October 1868 the International Red Cross Movement was created in Geneva, Switzerland and their duty was to provide non-partisan care to the wounded soldiers in time of war. (American Red Cross pg. 12, 2011) After the civil

The International Committee of the Red Cross, or the ICRC, was founded in Geneva, Switzerland by Henry Dunant, a Swiss businessman, in 1863. Its primary purpose was to provide medical assistance to soldiers in the field. The ICRC also tried to “develop international humanitarian law to guarantee the protection of human dignity” (Forsythe). In addition, the Red Cross was a neutral organization, meaning that they did not support either side of the conflict exclusively. This meant that they provided care for both sides of the conflict. These guidelines were outlined in 1864 at the first Geneva Convention. In Articles 1 and 2, it is stated that “ambulances and military hospitals shall be acknowledged to be neutral” and “persons employed in hospitals and ambulances, comprising the staff for superintendence, medical service, administration, transport of the wounded, as well as chaplains,

In international law, it includes rules on the treatment of prisoners of war although it only extends protection to the combatants only. The terms prisoner of war means a member of armed forces of a nation who had been captured or taken by enemy during the war. Article IV of 1949 Geneva Convention defined prisoner of war as “a person or Members of the armed forces of a Party to the conflict as well as members of militias or volunteer corps forming part of such armed forces” which falls into the power of the enemy. Apart from that, prisoner of war also can be stated as a combatant or non-combatant who had been held in custody by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict.

The second protocol expands on the first protocol and adds shipwrecked members of the armed forces, and expands that soldiers wounded or sick enough are no longer a threat and are to be treated with care. The third protocol creates rules for prisoners of war stating they are under the care of the state not any individual who captured them. The forth protocol is almost a complete overhaul of the previous protocols making each of the first 3 protocols more specific as well as creating rules that protect non-combatants and anyone who would find themselves captured by an enemy power but do not take part in hostilities. The forth protocol was created in 1949 to prevent the war crimes that happened during World War 2 from ever happening again. During the second World War countless atrocious acts were committed by every side with American’s treatment of Japanese Americans to Germany’s treatment of Jews as well as anyone unfortunate enough to be captured by the Germans. The third Genova Convention was in place however, many countries simply ignored them or were able to justify their actions as they were not specifically mentioned. If the Genova Convention teaches anything it is that when creating any kind of document that is trying to be a legal document, it needs to be incredibly specific to prevent all parties involved protected as well as establishing order. The reason a document like The Constitution works even though it is incredibly vague is that it created a framework that says how the government should function and establishes who can do what and what cannot be

The Geneva Conventions is a body of Public International Law, otherwise known as the Humanitarian Law of Armed Conflicts, whose purpose is to provide minimum protections, standards of humane treatment, and fundamental guarantees of respect to individuals who become victims of armed conflicts. The Geneva Conventions serves as a series of treaties that outline the treatment of civilians, prisoners of war and soldiers who are otherwise deemed incapable of fighting.2 The Geneva Conventions states that a war crime is:

One figure of prisoner of war captures in Iraq by the US and UK forces are more than 5,300, and many still being captured today (Kelley). The treatment of these prisoners should follow strict guidelines of the proper treatment of the prison war. Many problems have occurred with the mistreatment of prisoners, especially in the wake of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. Here is one account: “According to the U.S. Army, one Iraqi prisoner was told to stand on a box with his head covered, wires attached to his hands. He was told that if he fell off the box, he would be electrocuted.” (Abuse of Iraqi POWs by GIs Probed).

Ever since civilisation came into existence, the world has seen many wars being fought and many lives lost as a result of these. These wars have not only taken a toll on the lives of soldiers and their armies alone, but have also had devastating consequences on the lives of civilians and prisoners of war. In wake of the damage caused by the Battle of Solferino in 1859 as documented by Swiss Henry Dunant in his book, “A Memory of Solferino”, the International Committee of the Red Cross was conceptualised in 1863 and the First Geneva Convention was adopted in 18641.

The Geneva Conventions embody “strongly felt humanitarian ideals” which is the main source of their legitimacy. These treaties allow the international community to work together and agree on certain standards of war and human rights. The Geneva Conventions are an important aspect to the field of international relations. These treaties embody the commonly felt humanitarian ideals of the majority of the world, which proves that the international community can work together and agree on human rights. This element of teamwork across the international community contributes to the idealist view of international relations. The idealist view claims that ideas and traditions are what brings countries together, ends war, and facilitates globalization; typically laws and traditions vary per state, but sometimes they can transcend borders.

Geneva Convention was founded to do treatment of civilians, Prisoners of wars and soldiers. The first convention was initiated by the international committee for the treatment of wounds, the convention protected the sick soldiers during war time. The Swiss Government agree to held the conventions in Geneva. There were total of two conventions but after World War II two more Conventions were added to the original two with two Protocols. The International committee, who initiated first convention also became the International committee for Red cross and Red crescent.

The Third Geneva Convention, as well as the other Geneva Conventions, are oriented to conflict involving nation-states, and only loosely address irregular forces:

treaties against terrorism and aircraft hijacking going as far back as the 70s. It was Universal jurisdiction that allowed Israel to try Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem in 1961. Kissinger in his article stated that “thought it possible that national judges would use them as a basis for extradition requests regarding alleged crimes committed outside their jurisdiction”. The Torture convention on 1984 that was ratified by 124 governments required that any torturer found in its territory will be tried where the torture took place even if that means extradition. A country that does not have the means to try someone in violation may extradite the torturer to a country that can. Then there is the Geneva conventions of 1949 on the conduct of war. The Geneva convention was ratified by 189 countries including the United States. All countries involved have agreed to search for persons regardless of nationality to courts for trial who are reasonably accused of crimes. Kissinger worries that the ICC was vague and ran the risk of being used for political agenda. Roth assures him that in fact that the treaty 's definition for war crimes follows closely to the Pentagon 's very own military manuals as well as the Geneva convention. The fear that judges and courts becoming tyrannical can be offset by the fact that as it stands prosecutors can be removed for misconduct by a majority vote. The ICC treaty even states that a two-thirds vote can remove a judge. Many of the concerns that the ICC