As I understand it there have been several “Geneva Conventions” to try to come up with rules for the treatement of captured and wounded soldiers during wartime. A friend of mine said that the Geneva convention is a UN creation. He did so in an attempt to point out that it was foolish for us to expect Iraq to live up to a UN policy when we ourselves have gone against the UN to fight this war in the first place. Now, lets leave out the debate part of this conversation (or start a new thread in GD). My questions with factual answers are as follows:
Was the last Geneva convention the one in 1949?
Was the convention seperate from the UN or was it concieved and voted on in the UN at that time?
I was under the impression that the Geneva convention was its own thing and was seperate from the UN (even if they may have endorsed it). If I am correct, then regardless of whether we have gone against the UN (debatable), it should have no bearing on expecting other countries to live up to the Geneva convention which would not be a strictly UN mandate.
Thanks for any help in advance and lets try to stay out of the GD angles here as much as possible. I just want to know if the UN takes credit for coming up with (and getting countries to agree to) the latest Geneva convention.
The Geneva Conventions significantly predate the United Nations, which is why you often hear “the Geneva Convention” referred to in movies depicting World War II. The Red Cross tells the story of the original Treaty of Geneva (1864):
The United States signed the original Treaty of Geneva in 1882. You can find a more detailed history here.
The Treaty of Geneva has undergone three subsequent incarnations:
The Geneva Conventions in their modern form consist of not one but four conventions, adopted in 1949, plus the two protocols adopted in 1977:[ul][li] Convention (I) for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armed Forces in the Field. Geneva, 12 August 1949. [/li][li] Convention (II) for the Amelioration of the Condition of Wounded, Sick and Shipwrecked Members of Armed Forces at Sea. Geneva, 12 August 1949. [/li][li] Convention (III) relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War. Geneva, 12 August 1949. [/li][li] Convention (IV) relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War. Geneva, 12 August 1949. [/li][li] Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I), 8 June 1977. [/li][li] Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts (Protocol II), 8 June 1977.[/ul][/li]
AFAIK, the United Nations did not play a formal institutional role in the Diplomatic Conference that proposed the 1949 conventions, and the United Nations does not play a formal institutional role in administering or enforcing them (other than the UN Secretariat registering the conventions and receiving information about ratifications, accessions, and denunciations–a general function for which the UN Charter (art. 102) provides). The formal administration of the conventions occurs through the Depositary of the Geneva Conventions and Protocols at the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. But the impetus for the 1949 conventions came from the same internationalist sentiment that followed World War II and resulted in the United Nations being established, almost every United Nations member has ratified the conventions, and many sources–such as the BBC and even the United Nations itself–refer to the conventions as United Nations agreements. The “UN’s ambivalent relation to the Geneva Conventions” is discussed by Roy Gutman in his article “United Nations and the Geneva Conventions”.
The Geneva Conventions significantly predate the United Nations, which is why you often hear “the Geneva Convention” referred to in movies depicting World War II. The Red Cross tells the story of the original Treaty of Geneva (1864):
The United States signed the original Treaty of Geneva in 1882. You can find a more detailed history here.
The Treaty of Geneva has undergone three subsequent incarnations:
The Geneva Conventions in their modern form consist of not one but four conventions, adopted in 1949, plus the two protocols adopted in 1977:[ul][li] Convention (I) for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armed Forces in the Field. Geneva, 12 August 1949. [/li][li] Convention (II) for the Amelioration of the Condition of Wounded, Sick and Shipwrecked Members of Armed Forces at Sea. Geneva, 12 August 1949. [/li][li] Convention (III) relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War. Geneva, 12 August 1949. [/li][li] Convention (IV) relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War. Geneva, 12 August 1949. [/li][li] Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I), 8 June 1977. [/li][li] Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts (Protocol II), 8 June 1977.[/ul]AFAIK, the United Nations did not play a formal institutional role in the Diplomatic Conference that proposed the 1949 conventions, and the United Nations does not play a formal institutional role in administering or enforcing them (other than the UN Secretariat registering the conventions and receiving information about ratifications, accessions, and denunciations–a general function for which the UN Charter (art. 102) provides). The formal administration of the conventions occurs through the Depositary of the Geneva Conventions and Protocols at the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. But the impetus for the 1949 conventions came from the same internationalist sentiment that followed World War II and resulted in the United Nations being established, almost every United Nations member has ratified the conventions, and many sources–such as the BBC and even the United Nations itself–refer to the conventions as United Nations agreements. The “UN’s ambivalent relation to the Geneva Conventions” is discussed by Roy Gutman in his article “United Nations and the Geneva Conventions”.[/li]
Probably the best primary source for information about the conventions is the International Committee of the Red Cross.