Geneva Convention: Principles of Humane War

The Geneva Convention is a set of binding rules binding on all states, aimed at legislative protection of victims of major wars and local military conflicts (both international and domestic). This legal document also significantly limits the methods and set of means of warfare, based on the positions of humanism and philanthropy. The Geneva Convention in many ways changed the cruel appearance of the war, making it more civilized and humane.

The history of human civilization, by and large, can be studied from the history of the colossal number of wars of varying degrees of cruelty and bloodshed. It is almost impossible to find at least one century, without the armed confrontation of the powers and peoples. By the second half of the nineteenth century, when wars began to acquire unprecedented scope, mass and cruelty, when science, in symbiosis with technological progress, was already able to provide military with barbarous weapons of mass destruction, there was an urgent need to create such an important legal document as the Geneva Convention. It streamlined relations between participants in subsequent armed confrontations and reduced the number of casualties among civilians.

The Geneva Convention of 1864, which became the first such document in history, had an outstanding significance, which was that it was a multilateral standing treaty open to the voluntary adherence of all countries. This small document, consisting of just ten articles, laid the foundation for all the treaty law of war, as well as all humanitarian and legal norms in their modern interpretation.

Two years later, the first Geneva Convention was, if I may say so, a baptism of fire on the battlefields of the Austro-Prussian War. Prussia, which was one of the first to ratify this treaty, adhered to its provisions. The Prussian army had well-equipped hospitals, and the Red Cross was constantly there, where they needed his help. The situation in the opposing camp was different. Austria, which did not sign the convention, simply threw its wounded on the battlefields.

The purpose of subsequent editions of this international treaty, based on the experience of past wars, was to protect not only the rights of prisoners of war, but also people who are not directly involved in combat operations (civilians, religious persons, medical workers), as well as shipwrecked, sick, wounded, From which of the belligerents they belong to. Separate facilities such as hospitals, ambulances and various civilian institutions are also protected by the relevant articles of the Geneva Convention and can not be attacked or become an arena of battles.

This normative international instrument also defines prohibited methods of warfare. In particular, the use of civilians for military purposes is prohibited, the use of biological and chemical weapons, anti-personnel mines is prohibited. The profound meaning of the Geneva Convention lies in trying to ensure a reasonable balance between military-tactical necessity on the one hand and humanity on the other. With the change in the nature of the conduct and scope of wars, there is a need for a new version of the Geneva Convention. For example, according to the statistics of the past century, out of every hundred victims in wartime, eighty-five are civilians. First of all, this concerns the bloodiest war in history - the Second World War, when practically every state participating in it violated not only the provisions of the Geneva Convention, but all conceivable and inconceivable principles of universal morality.

The four Geneva Conventions of 1949, with two additional protocols from 1977, are voluminous multipage documents and are universal in nature. They were signed by 188 countries of the world. It should be noted that these revisions of the conventions are binding for all states that are not even parties to them.