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.

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.

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

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.

International Committee for the Red Cross: Status of Four Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocols I and II

1987 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 553-560
Keyword(s):  
Armed Forces ◽  
International Committee ◽  
Prisoners Of War ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
Geneva Conventions

The four 1949 Geneva Conventions (for the amelioration of the condition of the wounded and sick in armed forces in the field, for the amelioration of the condition of the wounded, sick, and shipwrecked members of armed forces at sea, relative to the treatment of prisoners of war, and relative to the protection of civilian persons in time of war) can be found at 6 UST 3114, 3217, 3316, 3516 and 75 UNTS 31, 85, 135, 287. The two 1977 Protocols (I – relating to the protection of victims of international armed conflicts and II – relating to the protection of victims of noninternational armed conflicts) appear respectively at 16 I.L.M. 1391 and 1442 (1977).

The ICRC and internally displaced persons

1995 ◽  
Vol 35 (305) ◽  
pp. 181-191
Keyword(s):  
Armed Conflict ◽  
International Committee ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
Internally Displaced Persons ◽  
Displaced Persons ◽  
Internally Displaced ◽  
Geneva Conventions ◽  
Conflict Situations ◽  
Article 5

According to the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the 1977 Protocols additional thereto, the mandate of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) applies in both international and noninternational armed conflict situations. The States party to the Geneva Conventions have also recognized the ICRC's right to propose activities in behalf of victims of internal strife, by adopting the Statutes of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement (Article 5, para. 2d, of the Statutes).

The International Committee in Cyprus

1974 ◽  
Vol 14 (165) ◽  
pp. 647-649
Keyword(s):  
International Committee ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
Executive Council ◽  
Geneva Conventions

The ICRC recently considered the time had come for a report to be published on its work in Cyprus, covering the period from July to October 1974. This report was issued in the form of an illustrated booklet and contained a foreword by Mr. R. Gallopin, President of the Executive Council:“During the conflict in Cyprus, the 1949 Geneva Conventions once again contributed to the protection of civilian and military victims. Once again, the International Committee of the Red Cross, to which the Powers assigned the role of neutral intermediary when they signed those Conventions, had to intervene on both sides. The operations described in the following pages involved most of the functions which, in a crisis which is both internal and international, the ICRC may be called upon to fulfil in order to ensure the provision of at least the essentials of life.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document