Wednesday, May 26, 2004

Geneva Conventions

Since the revelations about Abu Ghraib prison, there has been a lot in the news about the Geneva Conventions, a series of treaties creating international law which sets humanitarian standards during times of war.
It all began with Henri Dunant (1828-1910), a banker from Geneva Switzerland. He wanted to develop a large tract of land in Algeria, but needed to secure the water rights on the property. To secure these water rights, he decided to go right to the top – Louis-Napoleon aka the Emperor Napoleon III of France. However, the Emperor was in Italy fighting the Franco-Austrian War. Dunant decided to go to Italy to ask for the water rights, and arrived just in time to witness the grueling Battle of Solferino. Horrified by the suffering of wounded soldiers left on the battlefield, he penned "A Memory of Solferino" (http://tinyurl.com/yqrkp) in which he recounted the battle and proposed a plan of action. He initiated relief efforts that led to the Geneva Convention. In 1901 he was the winner of the first Nobel Peace Prize.
On August 22, 1864, twelve nations signed an international treaty, commonly known as the Geneva Convention, agreeing to guarantee neutrality to sanitary personnel, to expedite supplies for their use, and to adopt a special identifying emblem - a red cross on a field of white. The Convention mandated the formation of the International Red Cross.
The United States was not among the original signers. The campaign to get the US to sign the convention was led by Clara Barton (http://www.civilwarhome.com/bartonbio.htm), who had nursed wounded soldiers during the U. S. Civil War. Due to her lobbying, President James Garfield agreed that the 1864 Geneva Convention Treaty should be signed. However, he was assassinated before he could sign the document. Finally, on March 1, 1882, President Chester A. Arthur signed the treaty. The Senate ratified it on March 16, 1882. The United States was the 32nd nation to sign the document, establishing the American Red Cross (http://www.redcross.org/museum/pre1900a.html ) and agreeing to protect the wounded during wartime.
Later Geneva Conventions bolstered and expanded the humanitarian mission of the first.
The conventions and their agreements are as follows:
• First Geneva Convention (1864): Treatment of battlefield casualties.
• Second Geneva Convention (1906): Extended the principles from the first convention to apply also to war at sea.
• Third Geneva Convention (1929): Treatment of prisoners of war.
• Fourth Geneva Convention (1949): Treatment of civilians during wartime.
The first three conventions were revised, a fourth was added, and the entire set was ratified in 1949; the whole is referred to as the "Geneva Conventions of 1949" or simply the "Geneva Conventions". Later conferences have added provisions prohibiting certain methods of warfare and addressing issues of civil wars. Nearly 200 countries are "signatory" nations, in that they have ratified these conventions.





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