The French Army and the Geneva Conventions during the Algerian War of Independence and After

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raphaëlle Branche
Keyword(s):  
International Committee ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
Algerian War ◽  
Prisoner Of War ◽  
French Army ◽  
War Of Independence ◽  
Geneva Conventions ◽  
French Military ◽  
Algerian War Of Independence ◽  
The Status

France considered Algerian War of Independence an internal matter, and questioned the relevance of the Geneva Conventions. The International Committee of the Red Cross managed to get permits to visit the prisons and camps in Algeria where not only detainees but also mere suspects were held. The French military took Common Article Three into account, although the status of prisoner of war (POW) was never granted to anyone detained in any military or civil premises. To acknowledge the existence of POWs was to acknowledge that a war existed in Algeria. The National Liberation Front (FLN) fought hard to impose this reality on the French. Indeed, as the prospect of peace arose, the conditions of detention of some prisoners did improve. The chapter ends by exploring the legacies of the Algerian war on the Geneva Conventions and the French army.

Internationalizing Colonial War: On the Unintended Consequences of the Interventions of the International Committee of the Red Cross in SOUTH-EAST ASIA, 1945–1949*

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Boyd van Dijk
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
International Committee ◽  
Formative Period ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
Algerian War ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
War Of Independence ◽  
Algerian War Of Independence ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract What is the relationship between decolonization and international law? Most historians agree that empires framed their colonial wars as emergencies in order to escape international scrutiny. After 1945, however, those same imperial powers invited the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to intervene in their wars of decolonization while resisting an official state of war. This article seeks to solve this puzzle by drawing attention to the ICRC’s critical part in reshaping the international legal system regarding colonial war in the critical years before the Algerian War of Independence (1954–62) and the Bandung Conference (1955). In this formative period, the organization, together with anti-colonial activists, played a transformative role in contesting accepted ideas of global governance and international law while providing a new stage for anti-colonial resistance, with far-reaching consequences, not just for the ICRC’s own institutional future, but also for the legitimization of (post-)colonial sovereignty in the twentieth century.

Extraterritoriality of Human Rights Treaties

1995 ◽  
Vol 89 (1) ◽  
pp. 78-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theodor Meron
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
The United States ◽  
International Committee ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Prisoner Of War ◽  
Customary International Law ◽  
Geneva Conventions ◽  
Human Rights Treaties

On the eve of the planned U.S. invasion of Haiti, responding to an appeal from the International Committee of the Red Cross to apply international humanitarian law, the United States stated that [i]f it becomes necessary to use force and engage in hostilities, the United States will, upon any engagement of forces, apply all of the provisions of the Geneva Conventions and the customary international law dealing with armed conflict.Further, the United States will accord prisoner of war treatment to any detained member of the Haitian armed forces. Any member of the U.S. armed forces who is detained by Haitian forces must be accorded prisoner of war treatment.

Memories of a French Migration Crisis

2018 ◽  
pp. 56-72
Author(s):  
Laura Jeanne Sims
Keyword(s):  
Algerian War ◽  
African Origin ◽  
North African ◽  
Structural Racism ◽  
Internment Camps ◽  
Collective Memories ◽  
War Of Independence ◽  
Algerian War Of Independence ◽  
Migration Crisis ◽  
North African Origin

This chapter examines how the French state created a crisis through its management of the arrival and installation of the Harkis in 1962. The Harkis, Algerians of North African origin who supported the French army during the Algerian War of Independence (1954-1962), faced reprisal violence in Algeria at the end of the war and many were forced to migrate with their families to France. In response, French officials attempted to prevent the Harkis from escaping to France and placed some of those who succeeded in internment camps. Comparing the treatment of the Harkis with that of the Pieds-Noirs, the descendants of European settlers in Algeria who likewise fled to France in 1962, highlights the structural racism underlying French perceptions of and reactions to Harki migration. This chapter also explores the ways in which second-generation Harkis have constructed collective memories of the crisis and their attempts to hold the state responsible for its actions.

The Military Physician in Captivity

1969 ◽  
Vol 9 (99) ◽  
pp. 295-303
Author(s):  
E. Reginato
Keyword(s):  
Medical Officer ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
Prisoner Of War ◽  
Geneva Conventions ◽  
Peace And Justice ◽  
In Captivity ◽  
Military Physician ◽  
The Military ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Better Than

In his introductory address at the third International Refresher Course for Junior Medical Officers, Dr. H. Meuli, member of the ICRC, said “No one knows war better than the military medical officer, nor measures its horror, nor hates it more. No one has greater insight into war to enable him to take a stand for peace and against war”. From its very beginnings the Red Cross has been linked to medicine; it was the ICRC which obtained for doctors the means of exercising their profession in war, which are laid down in the Geneva Conventions.It therefore seems appropriate to quote extensively from a communication submitted at the Course by an Italian doctor, bearing moving testimony to the difficulties facing the medical officer, the noble character of his mission and the principles underlying his activity in the prisoner of war camp. These principles were summed up in his conclusion : “Like peace and justice, medicine loses its significance if not accompanied by charity. If it is to stay universal, it must not lose its humanity”. (Ed.).

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.

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

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