The dilemmas of protecting civilians in occupied territory: the precursory example of World War I

2012 ◽  
Vol 94 (885) ◽  
pp. 117-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annette Becker
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
International Committee ◽  
Prisoners Of War ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
World War ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Occupied Territory ◽  
The Law

AbstractAdvances in the law of Geneva and the law of The Hague did not remain a dead letter during the World War I, but this was essentially with regard to the wounded and prisoners of war. Those categories of persons were better protected than civilians by treaty-based humanitarian law, which was still in its infancy. Although the ideal of humanity was realized on a large scale thanks to the efforts of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and myriad other charitable, denominational, or non-denominational organizations, none of the belligerents hesitated to infringe and violate the law whenever they could. The various occupied populations, on the Western and Eastern fronts and in the Balkans, served as their guinea pigs and were their perfect victims.

Africa’s Approach to Human Rights at the United Nations

1976 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 14-21
Author(s):  
Warren Weinstein
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
World War I ◽  
International Committee ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
International Labor Organization ◽  
World War ◽  
The Law

International concern with the rights of man is not new. During the 1800s the movement to abolish slavery was an emanation of this concern. In the mid-1800s the International Committee of the Red Cross was founded in reaction to the lack of care for wounded soldiers on battlefield. Under its aegis there developed humanitarian law, both the Law of Geneva and the Law of The Hague.In the post World War I period, civil and political rights were given international protection in a series of “minorities treaties.” In addition, economic and social rights received international recognition with the creation of the International Labor Organization (I.L.O.) in 1919. Refugees received assistance with the establishment of a High Commissioner for Refugees. It has, however, only been in the post World War II period that international human rights, and their protection, have received extensive recognition.

The Protection of Women in International Humanitarian Law

1985 ◽  
Vol 25 (249) ◽  
pp. 337-363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Françoise Krill
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Geneva Convention ◽  
Legal Protection ◽  
Prisoners Of War ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
World War ◽  
The Hague ◽  
Special Protection

Since the number of women who actually participated in war was insignificant until the outbreak of World War I, the need for special protection for them was not felt prior to that time. This does not imply however that women had previously lacked any protection. From the birth of international humanitarian law, they had had the same general legal protection as men. If they were wounded, women were protected by the provisions of the 1864 Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded in Armies in the Field; if they became prisoners of war, they benefited from the Regulations annexed to the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 on the Laws and Customs of War on Land.

Appointment

1969 ◽  
Vol 9 (102) ◽  
pp. 491-491 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
International Committee ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Prisoners Of War ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
World War ◽  
East European ◽  
Middle East Countries ◽  
Wide Experience ◽  
Second World

Mr. Raymond Courvoisier has since 1 August 1969 taken over the appointment of special assistant to the President of the International Committee, thus bringing it his wide experience in the field of international humanitarian law. It should, in fact, be recalled that from 1936 to 1945 he undertook a large number of missions in ICRC service as delegate in Spain, Turkey, in East European and Middle East countries. Furthermore, he was in charge of a section in the Central Prisoners of War Agency in Geneva during the Second World War.

“How to Free Your Prisoner”

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Padraic Kenney
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
World War I ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
International Committee ◽  
Prisoners Of War ◽  
Political Prisoners ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
Amnesty International ◽  
Late Twentieth

Though political prisoners are almost always incarcerated for national causes, they became the focus of international support in the twentieth century. The earliest attention was from diaspora communities of supporters, for example, among the Irish or among socialists. The International Committee of the Red Cross began with a focus on prisoners of war, expanding to political prisoners after World War I. The New York–based International Committee for Political Prisoners pioneered a nonpartisan approach to political prisoners. Like Amnesty International forty years later, it was an advocate for those who did not engage in violence. New kinds of prisoner assistance in the late twentieth century proved to be building blocks of post-transition civil society.

The International Committee of the Red Cross and the implementation of a system to repress breaches of international humanitarian law

1994 ◽  
Vol 34 (300) ◽  
pp. 240-254 ◽  
Author(s):  
María Teresa Dutli ◽  
Cristina Pellandini
Keyword(s):  
Armed Conflict ◽  
International Committee ◽  
Prisoners Of War ◽  
Customary Law ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Civilian Population ◽  
Vital Importance ◽  
Geneva Conventions

The fundamental instruments of international humanitarian law are well known. They are principally the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocols of 1977, as well as an extensive framework of customary law. These instruments deal with issues of vital importance in times of armed conflict including protection of the wounded, sick and shipwrecked, prisoners of war and civilian internees, as well as the protection of the civilian population as a whole.

FEEDING THE CAMPS: ALLIED BLOCKADE POLICY AND THE RELIEF OF CONCENTRATION CAMPS IN GERMANY, 1944–1945

1998 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 825-851 ◽  
Author(s):  
RONALD W. ZWEIG
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
International Committee ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Concentration Camp ◽  
Concentration Camps ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
Voluntary Organizations ◽  
World War ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Second World

In the twelve months preceding the end of the Second World War, the International Committee of the Red Cross and various voluntary organizations acting with the Red Cross, were able to dispatch food parcels to increasingly large numbers of concentration camp inmates in Germany and German-controlled territory. As Allied pressure on Germany increased during the last months of the war, the possibilities of sending large-scale relief into the camps prior to their liberation expanded dramatically. However, Allied blockade policy was so deeply entrenched that it was almost impossible for these possibilities to be fully exploited. Official relief agencies failed to convince Supreme Headquarters of the Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) that improving the rations of the camp inmates would not strengthen the German working force but would alleviate the problems that SHAEF itself would confront when it liberated the camps shortly thereafter.

Force versus law: The International Committee of the Red Cross and chemical warfare in the Italo-Ethiopian war 1935–1936

1998 ◽  
Vol 38 (322) ◽  
pp. 81-104
Author(s):  
Rainer Baudendistel
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Chemical Warfare Agents ◽  
International Committee ◽  
Chemical Warfare ◽  
League Of Nations ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
Biological Warfare ◽  
World War ◽  
Warfare Agents ◽  
First Time

During World War I, chemical warfare agents were widely used for the first time on all major fronts with an unprecedented number of casualties, and immediately after the war attempts were made to outlaw this latest weapon. Responsibility for the drafting of specific laws fell to the League of Nations, reflecting the belief that this was a matter of concern for the whole world, not just for the victors in the war. On 17 June 1925, the Geneva Protocol for the prohibition of the use in war of asphyxiating, poisonous or other gases and of bacteriological methods of warfare was signed by 26 States.3 It contained a categorical prohibition to resort to chemical and biological warfare. The signature of the Protocol raised high hopes of an effective ban on chemical warfare, but adherence progressed slowly. A number of States, visibly not trusting the Protocol to be implemented in the forthright manner suggested by the text, made major reservations.

Death of Mr. F. Barbey, honorary member of the ICRC

1970 ◽  
Vol 10 (116) ◽  
pp. 639-639
Keyword(s):  
First World War ◽  
International Committee ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Prisoners Of War ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
Honorary Member ◽  
World War ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Second World ◽  
First World

It was with regret that the International Committee learnt of the death, on 21 October 1970, of Mr. Frédéric Barbey, who was co-opted to the ICRC in 1915 and was at that time active in the work of the International Prisoners of War Agency. In 1921 he became an honorary member and in 1938 again dedicated himself fully to the work of the Red Cross. Devoting himself unstintingly to the institution as soon as the Second World War broke out, as he had done during the First World War, he gave invaluable assistance. International Review had occasion in June 1947, when Mr. Barbey had again become an honorary member of the institution, to mention the important part he played in helping the ICRC to discharge its mission. The following extract from that article concerns his work from 1939 onwards:

At the University of Geneva

1965 ◽  
Vol 5 (47) ◽  
pp. 79-79
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
International Committee ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
State Council ◽  
Law Of Nations ◽  
The Law ◽  
The University

The Geneva State Council has just appointed Mr. Jean Pictet to be in charge of courses in humanitarian law at the Faculty of Law. The International Committee of the Red Cross is doubly pleased by this appointment since, if Mr. Pictet is Director for General Affairs of the ICRC, he is also at the present time one of the jurists who have most knowledge of that part of the law of nations which, notably under the influence of the Red Cross movement, aims at protecting the victims of both international and civil war.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document