REPORTS AND DOCUMENTS: The Geneva Conventions and Public International Law

With sixty years of hindsight, it seems particularly appropriate to reflect on the trajectory of international humanitarian law (IHL) as shaped by the 1949 Geneva Conventions. The near universal acceptance of the Conventions and their secure integration into the international system can sometimes lead us to underestimate the significance of their impact. It is this transformative impact on public international law which will be the focus of this note. To start, I will briefly review the historical context from which the 1949 Conventions materialized. Calamitous events and atrocities have always driven the development of IHL. In 1863, the American Civil War gave rise to the Lieber Code. This ultimately gave birth to the branch of IHL commonly known as the Hague Law, which governs the conduct of hostilities. One hundred and fifty years ago, the battle of Solferino – immortalized in Henry Dunant’s moving memoir of suffering and bloodshed – inspired the Red Cross Movement. Thence began the other branch of IHL, the Geneva Law, which – starting with the first Geneva Convention in 1864 – has provided for the protection of victims of war, the sick, the wounded, prisoners and civilians. In the twentieth century, Nazi atrocities led to Nuremberg, the Genocide Convention, the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Volume 91 Number 875 September 2009