Humanitarian aid to the victims of internal conflicts. Meeting of a Commission of Experts in Geneva

1963 ◽  
Vol 3 (23) ◽  
pp. 79-91
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Humanitarian Aid ◽  
International Committee ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
Internal Conflicts ◽  
Geneva Conventions ◽  
The Individual

Article 3 common to the four Geneva Conventions constitutes a striking affirmation of humanitarian protection.Out of respect which is due to the individual, the States parties to these Conventions have in fact accepted to limit, to a certain extent, their liberty of action as regards their own nationals in the case of internal conflicts. International law has thus managed to penetrate a field hitherto exclusively reserved to internal law and the International Committee of the Red Cross has been especially mentioned as being capable, under certain conditions, of acting as guarantor for such protection.

Squaring the Circle

2020 ◽  
pp. 58-97
Author(s):  
Giovanni Mantilla
Keyword(s):  
Social Pressure ◽  
International Committee ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
New Wave ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Step Process ◽  
Internal Conflicts ◽  
Normative Pressure ◽  
Geneva Conventions ◽  
Shared Interest

This chapter cites the adoption of Common Article 3 (CA3) as the product of a two-step process characterized by normative pressure and social pressure via forum isolation. It illustrates how the action of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was often hindered by government refusal to admit its services or to show humanitarian restraint in internal violence despite the normative inroads made in 1921. It also mentions a new wave of civil war atrocity that was key for slowly generating a shared interest among a majority of states to include humanitarian protections for internal conflicts in the Geneva Conventions. The chapter shows how intense public and private pressures blocked the dismissal of the idea of humanizing internal conflicts and tamed delegates pushing for high conditions of application. It investigates the early Cold War contest between competing liberal and socialist ideologies that accentuated global political status struggles.

The updated ICRC Commentary on the Second Geneva Convention: Demystifying the law of armed conflict at sea

2016 ◽  
Vol 98 (902) ◽  
pp. 401-417
Author(s):  
Bruno Demeyere ◽  
Jean-Marie Henckaerts ◽  
Heleen Hiemstra ◽  
Ellen Nohle
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Geneva Convention ◽  
International Committee ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Geneva Conventions ◽  
Law Of Armed Conflict ◽  
Hospital Ships

AbstractSince their publication in the 1950s and 1980s respectively, the Commentaries on the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocols of 1977 have become a major reference for the application and interpretation of those treaties. The International Committee of the Red Cross, together with a team of renowned experts, is currently updating these Commentaries in order to document developments and provide up-to-date interpretations of the treaty texts. Following a brief overview of the methodology and process of the update as well as a historical background to the Second Geneva Convention, this article addresses the scope of applicability of the Convention, the type of vessels it protects (in particular hospital ships and coastal rescue craft), and its relationship with other sources of international humanitarian law and international law conferring protection to persons in distress at sea. It also outlines differences and commonalities between the First and the Second Conventions, including how these have been reflected in the updated Commentary on the Second Convention. Finally, the article highlights certain substantive obligations under the Convention and how the updated Commentary addresses some of the interpretive questions they raise.

Can Civil Defence personnel be armed?

1962 ◽  
Vol 2 (11) ◽  
pp. 63-77
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
International Committee ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
General Interest ◽  
Geneva Conventions ◽  
Civil Defence

The International Committee of the Red Cross was asked some time ago to give its views on the problem relative to the arming of Civil Defence personnel. In view of the general interest which this question has aroused we consider it to be opportune to publish the ICRC's comments below, especially as they touch upon several points of international law and the Geneva Conventions.

Protection of Civilian Populations Against the Dangers of Indiscriminate Warfare

1967 ◽  
Vol 7 (75) ◽  
pp. 300-311
Author(s):  
Samuel A. Gonard
Keyword(s):  
International Committee ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
International Conference ◽  
Geneva Conventions ◽  
The Hague

We have the honour of enclosing the text of a memorandum dated May 19, 1967, addressed by the International Committee of the Red Cross to the Governments of States parties to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and to the IVth Convention of The Hague of 1907, concerning the laws and customs of war on land. This memorandum bears on the protection of civilian populations against the dangers of indiscriminate warfare and, in particular, on the implementation of Resolution XXVIII of the XXth International Conference of the Red Cross.

Bridging the Accountability Gap

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 567-597
Author(s):  
Hannes Jöbstl
Keyword(s):  
War Crimes ◽  
International Committee ◽  
Customary Law ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Penal Sanctions ◽  
Accountability Gap ◽  
Alternative Solutions

Abstract During non-international armed conflict, war crimes often go unpunished in areas where state authorities are unable to enforce the law. While states are under a customary law obligation to investigate and prosecute war crimes committed on their territory or by their nationals, the Customary International Humanitarian Law Study of the International Committee of the Red Cross has not found that this obligation extends to armed non-state actors (ANSAs). Nevertheless, command responsibility requires the individual commander to punish their forces in case war crimes have been committed and a growing amount of state practice demanding similar commitments — both legally and politically — from these actors as such can be observed over the past two decades. Indeed, ANSAs routinely impose penal sanctions onto their subordinates and often establish judicial structures in order to do so. This article argues that whereas ANSAs should be under some form of obligation to ensure accountability, alternative solutions to makeshift courts and penal proceedings might be better suited to prevent impunity and maintain fair trial guarantees.

ICRC surgical activities

1991 ◽  
Vol 31 (284) ◽  
pp. 483-490
Author(s):  
Rémi Russbach ◽  
Robin Charles Gray ◽  
Robin Michael Coupland
Keyword(s):  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
International Committee ◽  
Medical Services ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
Main Role ◽  
Army Medical ◽  
Geneva Conventions

The surgical activities of the International Committee of the Red Cross stem from the institution's general mandate to protect and assist the victims of armed conflict.The war wounded are thus only one category of the victims included in the ICRC's terms of reference.The ICRC's main role in relation to the war wounded is not to treat them, for this is primarily the responsibility of the governments involved in the conflict and hence their army medical services. The task of the ICRC is first and foremost to ensure that the belligerents are familiar with the provisions of the Geneva Conventions and apply them, that is, care for members of the enemy armed forces as well as their own and afford medical establishments and personnel the protection to which they are entitled.

Further participation in the Geneva Conventions

1968 ◽  
Vol 8 (89) ◽  
pp. 406-406
Keyword(s):  
International Committee ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
International Review ◽  
Geneva Conventions

In its number for June 1968, the International Review mentioned that 118 States were parties to the Geneva Conventions of August 12, 1949. Since then, the International Committee of the Red Cross has been informed by the Federal Political Department in Berne of the participation by the Kingdom of Lesotho in these Conventions.

UN Peacekeeping Operations: Applicability of International Humanitarian Law and Responsibility for Operations-Related Damage

2000 ◽  
Vol 94 (2) ◽  
pp. 406-412 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daphna Shraga
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
International Committee ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Peacekeeping Operations ◽  
Geneva Conventions ◽  
Un Peacekeeping ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
First Time

In the five decades that followed the Korea operation, where for the first time the United Nations commander agreed, at the request of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), to abide by the humanitarian provisions of the Geneva Conventions, few UN operations lent themselves to the applicability of international humanitarian law

A Winding Road to the Additional Protocols (1950–1968)

2020 ◽  
pp. 98-129
Author(s):  
Giovanni Mantilla
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
International Committee ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
Legal Rules ◽  
Geneva Conventions ◽  
The United Nations

This chapter traces the events that followed the adoption of Common Article 3 (CA3) in 1949 until 1968. It analyzes formal debates that resurfaced in the United Nations (UN) about revising and developing the international legal rules for armed conflict, which lead to the negotiation of the two Additional Protocols (APs) that complement the 1949 Geneva Conventions. It also explains how the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) rested on its laurels through the extension of CA3 on situations of internal violence that could not be plausibly characterized as armed conflict. The chapter mentions ICRC activities between 1950 and the mid-1960s that reveal persistent efforts to make up for the operation of CA3 in the gray zones. It examines interruption of the reflection of the ICRC by episodes of frustration and abuse that involve concerns about detained persons in diverse internal violent contexts.

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