8.4C - The Geneva Convention(s)
The Geneva Convention forms a basis in international law for prosecuting individuals and organisations who commit war crimes and is endorsed by 196 countries; however few cases come to trial, and over 150 countries continue to engage in torture.
International Law also governs actions during wartime. The Geneva Conventions have a history dating back to the 1860s. The current version is the Fourth Geneva Convention, signed by 196 countries in 1949. It has been updated since with various amendments called protocols. The Geneva Conventions cover the 'rules of war' (acceptable conduct during one) in the following ways:
- wounded and sick soldiers should be evacuated from the field of battle and given medical treatment, even by the enemy side
- prisoners should be well treated, not used for forced labour and hostages should not be taken
- civilians should be protected in areas that have been conquered.
The Geneva Convention helped define war crimes, (e.g. torture, rape, genocide, child soldiers, bombing civilians, chemical weapons). Those accused of war crimes can be tried at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, the Netherlands, set up in 2002. Recognition of the ICC by sovereign states is widespread (123 signatories) but not universal (the USA, China, Russia, India etc.).
Difficulties with the ICC:
- international cooperation to bring war criminals to trial can be hard to achieve as not all states agree with it
- war criminals have to be captured and then brought to the Hague: those accused often attempt to avoid this at all costs
- gathering evidence of war crimes during a war is very difficult.
Since 2002, the ICC has investigated war crimes linked to 11 wars, and accused 42 individuals, of which 34 have had arrest warrants issued against them. As of 2018, only 5 criminals had been convicted at the ICC.
(Remember: the Geneva Convention is much narrower than the UDHR, as it only applies to conflict situations)
A key issue with the Convention, human rights law and the ICC is that many sovereign states still engage in actions that are banned by the treaties and agreements that have signed:
- Amnesty International, estimates that 140 sovereign states use torture, for instance
- around 25 countries still use chemical weapons
- by some definitions, the USA has attempted regime change in over 30 countries since 1945, and many of these can be questioned under international law
- may be through military intervention or political and economic pressure
- most sovereign states consider Russia's invasion and annexation of parts of Georgia (2008) and Ukraine (2014) illegal under international law.