Basic Rules of the Geneva Conventions

and their Additional Protocols

Chapter II: Protection of the wounded, sick and
shipwrecked
Geneva Convention for the amelioration of the condition of the wounded and
sick in armed forces in the field (Convention I of 12 August 1949) Geneva
Convention for the amelioration of the condition of wounded, sick and
shipwrecked members of armed forces at sea (Convention II of 12 August 1949)
Additional Protocol I, Part II

1. Field of application of the two Conventions and the Protocol: Generally

speaking, the Second Geneva Convention of 12 August 1949 is almost identical
with the First. The main difference between the two is that the second concerns
the wounded, sick and shipwrecked members of armed forces at sea while the
first relates to the wounded and sick in armed forces in the field. Otherwise, the
principles underlying the two Conventions are identical and the same rules apply
to protected persons and property, taking into account the different conditions
prevailing on land and at sea.

2. Protection, treatment and care: All wounded, sick and shipwrecked, to

whichever Party they belong, shall be respected and protected. In all
circumstances, they shall be treated humanely and shall receive, the medical care
and attention required by their condition. There shall be no distinction between
them on any other grounds. Women shall be treated with all the particular
consideration due to their sex.

3. Search for the wounded, dead and missing: At all time, the parties must
immediately take all the possible measures to search for and collect for wounded
and sick ,shipwrecked, to protect them against ill-treatment and ensure their
adequate care, as well as to search for the dead and prevent their being
despoiled.

4. Recording and forwarding of information: Parties to a conflict must record all

available particulars which could help to identify the wounded, sick and dead who
have fallen into their hands: the Power on which they depend or nationality,
regimental number, surname and first name, date of birth, date and place of
capture and the nature of actions taken with regard to the individuals concerned,
etc. This information is to be forwarded as soon as possible to the Information
Bureau.

5. Role of the civilian population and relief organizations; role of neutral ships

The civilian Population must respect the wounded, sick and shipwrecked, even if
they belong to the adverse Party, and shall commit no act of violence against
them. The civilian population and relief organizations, such as National Red Cross
and Red Crescent Societies, will be authorized, even in invaded or occupied
regions, to collect and care for the wounded, sick and ship wrecked, even if they
are enemy. Nobody may be harassed, prosecuted or convicted for such
humanitarian action.

Furthermore, the competent authority may appeal to the civilian population and
the relief organizations to collect the wounded, sick and shipwrecked, to search
for the dead and report where they were found.

6. Medical units: Military or civilian medical units are protected by the

Conventions and the Protocol. Such units comprise all buildings or fixed
installations (hospitals and other similar units, blood transfusion, medical depots
and stores) and mobile units (quarantine stations, tents, open air installations,
vehicles assigned to medical purposes)

a) which belong to a Party to the conflict or which are recognized and authorized
by a Party to the conflict (naturally including the National Red Cross and Red
Crescent Societies and other authorized Societies)
b) which are placed at the disposal of a Party to the conflict - by a neutral State, -
by an impartial international organization of a humanitarian nature.

7. Medical transport: Medical transport by ambulances must be respected and

protected in the same way as mobile medical units. Military ambulances falling
into enemy hands are subject to the laws of war on condition that the Party
capturing them assumes responsibility for the sick and wounded they contain.
Medical transport by water is carried out either by hospital ships or other medical
ships and craft.

The following vessels are protected by the Conventions and the Protocol on
condition that their names and descriptions have been notified to the Parties to
the conflict:

- military hospital ships of the Parties to the conflict

- hospital ships used by National Red Cross Societies or other officially recognized
aid Societies, including those from neutral countries

Hospital ships may not be attacked and may not be captured. The same applies to
ships chartered for the transport of medical equipment. However, the Parties to
the conflict have the right to board and inspect these ships. Any hospital ship in a
port which falls into enemy hands will be authorized to leave the port. Other
medical ships and craft shall be respected and protected in the same way as
mobile medical units.

8. Medical personnel: Medical and religious personnel of the Parties to the

conflict, whether military or civilian, shall be respected and protected. Protected
personnel are the following:

a) Military or civilian medical personnel are those belonging to civil defence

organizations

b) medical personnel of National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and other
national aid Societies recognized by a Party to the conflict
c) religious personnel attached, either permanently or temporarily, to the armed
forces, to medical units or transport, or to civil defence organizations.

9. Medical mission: Finally, the Protocol provides that nobody may be punished
for having carried out medical activities compatible with medical ethics

10. Emblem and signals: The sign of the red cross or red crescent must be
displayed on the flags, buildings, installations and mobile formations of medical
units, on their means of transport, as well as on armlets, clothes and headgear of
medical and religious personnel. It will be as large as the circumstances require
and all the exterior surface must be white.
 Civilians Regarding Geneva Conventions
Section I: Protection against the effects of hostilities

1 Fundamental principle and basic rules: The fundamental principle of armed

conflicts is that: In any armed conflict, the right of the Parties to choose methods
or means of warfare is not unlimited. Two basic rules follow from this principle.
The first is prohibits the use of weapons, projectiles and methods of warfare to
cause unnecessary injury to nature. The second, in order to ensure respect and
protection for the civilian population and civilian property.

2. Definition of civilians and civilian property: Any Person not belonging to the
armed forces is considered as a civilian. Civilian property is anything which is not a
military objective, i.e. which by its nature, location, purpose, capture .

3. Protection of civilian persons and property: The prohibition of attacks on

civilian persons and civilian property includes all acts of violence, whether
committed in offence or defence. The presence or movements of the civilian
population or individual civilians must not be used to try to shield military
objectives from attack or to shield, favour military operations.

4. Special protection of certain property: Cultural property is entitled to special

protection. Historical monuments, works of art or places of worship which
constitute the cultural or spiritual heritage of peoples must not be the objects of
any acts of hostility, nor be used in support of the military effort.

In case of risk of the release of dangerous forces which could cause severe losses
among the civilian population, dams, dykes and nuclear electrical generating
stations, must not be attacked, even if they constitute military objectives

5. Special protection of certain zones and localities

a) Safety zones: The 4th Convention provides that either before or after the
outbreak of hostilities, hospital and safety zones and localities may be established
so as to protect wounded, sick and aged persons, children and mothers of
children under the age of seven.
b) Neutralized zones: Neutralized zones are established in fighting areas and
intended to shelter all persons, without distinction, who are not taking part, or no
longer taking part, in hostilities and who do not perform any work of a military
nature while they remain in these zones.

c) Non-defended localities: As long as these conditions are met, no attack can be

launched on the locality by any means whatsoever and i.e .

a) all combatants, as well as mobile weapons and mobile military equipment

must have been removed
b) no hostile use may be made of fixed military installations or establishments
c) no acts of hostility may be committed by the authorities or by the
population
d) no activities may be undertaken in support of military operations.

d)Demilitarized zones: The Protocol prohibits extension of military operations to

zones on which the opposing Parties have conferred by agreement the status of
demilitarized zone, if such extension is contrary to the terms of such an
agreement.

6. Precautionary measures: The party who attacks must take the certain
precautions i.e must verify that the objectives to be attacked are definitely
military objectives, must choose means and methods of attack which avoid or
reduce to a minimum losses and damage to civilians and civilian property.

7. Civil defence: Civil defence organizations have humanitarian tasks. They are
intended to protect the civilian population against the dangers of hostilities or
disasters and to help it recover from their immediate effects, as well as to ensure
the conditions necessary for its survival. The same rules also apply to civil defence
organizations of neutral States operating on the conflict territory of a Party.
Section II: General protection and administration of civilians in time of war

1)Scope of the Fourth Convention: The 4th Convention is especially concerned

with supplementing Section 111 of the Hague Regulations of 1907 on the laws
and customs of war relating to occupied territories. But, in addition to a section
concerning the administration of foreigners, it also includes provisions relative to
the general protection of civilian populations and territories of the Parties to the
conflict and to occupied territories. Both these latter groups of provisions are
supplemented or even replaced by corresponding Articles in the Protocol.

2)General protection of all persons affected by the armed conflict: All persons
affected by an armed conflict, whether or not they are protected persons in the
meaning of Article 4 of the Fourth Convention. In principle they therefore concern
nationals as well as non-nationals of the Parties to the conflict, nationals of
neutral States on the territory of a Party to the conflict as well as nationals of
States not Parties to the Conventions and the Protocol who find themselves on
this territory.

a)Aid: The Fourth Convention guarantees the free passage of all consignments of
medicaments, foodstuffs, clothing and tonics intended for children, expectant
mothers and women in labour and medical equipment, as well as objects
necessary for religious worship intended only for civilians of another Contracting
Party, even those of an enemy.

b)Protection of children: All practicable measures must be taken to prevent

children from taking a direct part in the hostilities and, if they have become
orphaned or separated from their families as a result of the war, to ensure that
they are not left to their own resources and that their maintenance, the exercise
of their religion and their education are facilitated in all circumstances.

c)Protection of women: Women shall be the object of special respect and must
be protected against any form of indecent assault.

d)Reuniting of dispersed families and family news: All the Parties to the
Conventions and the Protocol must facilitate the reunion of dispersed families
and encourage the work of the humanitarian organizations engaged in this task.
e)Refugees and stateless persons: Persons who, before the outbreak of
hostilities, were considered as stateless persons or refugees under the State of
residence are protected persons within the meaning of the Fourth Convention.

f)Journalists: Journalists engaged in dangerous professional missions in areas of

armed conflict shall be considered as civilians and protected as such. They may
obtain identity cards attesting to their status as journalists.

g)Fundamental guarantees: The following acts in particular are prohibited under

any pretext whatever, whether committed by civil or military agents:

a) violence to the life,health and physical or mental well-being of persons,

particularly:

-murder

- torture of all kinds, whether physical or mental;

- corporal punishment,.

- mutilation;

b) outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading

treatment, enforced prostitution and any form of indecent assault;

c) the taking of hostages;

d) collective punishments;

e) threats to commit any of the foregoing acts.

Finally, the guarantees of judicial procedure (see Chapter III, point 6, page 31) also
form part of the fundamental guarantees accorded to all persons affected by an
armed conflict.

3. General treatment of persons protected by the Fourth Convention

a) Respect for the human person:Protected persons are entitled, in all

circumstances, to respect for human persons, their honour, their family rights,
their religious convictions and practices, and their manners and customs. They
shall at all times be humanely treated, and shall be protected especially against all
acts of violence or threats thereof and against insults and public curiosity.

b) Applications to Protecting Powers and the Red Cross: Protected persons shall
have every facility for making application to the Protecting Powers, the ICRC, the
National Red Cross or Red Crescent Society of the country where they may be .

4. Treatment of foreigners on the territory of a Party to the conflict: If

departures take place, they must be carried out in satisfactory conditions as
regards safety, hygiene, sanitation and food. But if the foreigner is enemy after
that the enemy shall be protected by the state.

5. Occupation administration

a) Protection of persons: All persons affected by the armed conflict , fundamental

guarantees and the protection of children and women, as well as Respect for the
human person. The rules laid down in the Convention are intended to safeguard
the lives and interests of the population in humane conditions.

Work: Only persons over the age of eighteen may be compelled to work,

Food: The Occupying Power has the duty of ensuring the food and medical
supplies of the population.

Hygiene and public health must be ensured

Religion: The Occupying of religion to give spiritual assistance to the members of

their religious community.

b) Protection of property:The Occupying Power is prohibited from destroying real

or personal property belonging individually or collectively to private persons

c) Role of the National Society: The National Red Cross or Red Crescent Society is
qualified to aid the wounded, sick and shipwrecked, to distribute relief and to
supervise the welfare of the population with the means at its disposal. Similarly,
magistrates and public officials are, up to a point, protected against political
pressures. The Occupying Power may not alter the status of public officials or
judges in the occupied territory, or apply sanctions or take measures of coercion
or discrimination of any kind against them, because they abstain from fulfilling
their functions for reasons of conscience.

d) Penal legislation: The penal legislation of the occupied territory remains in

force to maintenance of order while protecting the population, except in so far as
it constitutes a threat to the Occupying Power, in which case it may be repealed
or suspended by that Power. Subject to this reservation, the tribunals of the
occupied territory shall continue to function for all offences covered by this
legislation.

6. Treatment of civilian internees: Both in the case of enemy civilians, and that of
protected persons in occupied territory, the principle is that if the Detaining
Power considers it necessary, for imperative reasons of security, to take safety
measures concerning protected persons, it may, at the most, subject them to
assigned residence or to internment. Internment therefore is not a punishment.
Like the code for prisoners of war, it must in all circumstances respect human
dignity.
 Prisoners Of War
Introduction: "Prisoner of war" is a person who is captured by enemy during war.
The rules of treatment of the prisoner of war are governed by the Geneva
convention 1949. This convention is regarded most important convention on the
protection of the prisoners of war.

Prisoner of War: "Prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who

is held in custody by an enemy during war or immediately after an armed
conflict."

Persons Treated as Prisoners of War: The Geneva Convention 1949 enummerat

that certain categories of persons who have fallen into the hands of enemy shall
be called as prisoners of war, which are following:

i) Members of armed forces of a party to the conflict.

ii) Members of Militias and member of volunteer corps, which also fulfil the
following conditions..

a) That being commanded by a person responsible for his subordinates.

b) That they have a distinctive sign which can be recognized from distance.

c) That they wear a distinct uniform.

d)That they carry arms

iii) Members of the armed forces who profess allegiance to a govt. or an authority
not recognized by the detaining power.

iv) Persons who accompany the armed forces without actually being member of
armed forces.

v) Inhabitants of a non-occupied territory who take up arm to resist the invading

forces.
Fundamental Principles Relating to Prisoners of War: The Geneva Convention
1949 contain the following important provisions relating to prisoners of war.

1. Human Treatment of Prisoners: Prisoners of war at all time be humanly

treated. International law protects the prisoners from the punishment for hostile
acts committed prior to capute.

2. Prohibition as to any act Harmful for Health: Any unlawful act or omission by
the detaining power causing health or seriously endangering the health of the
prisoners of war is prohibited.

3. No Physical Multilation: No prisoner of war may be subjected to physical

multilation or to medical or scientific experiments of any kinds which are not
justified by the medical, dental and hospital treatment of the prisoners.

4. Mail: Detaining Power must allow POWs, as soon as possible after captivity, to
inform their families about their whereabouts and health. POWs have the right to
send letters, make telephone calls or use other means of communication in order
to get connected to their loved ones

5. Fair Trial: POWs are entitled to a fair trial, including the right to counsel,
advance knowledge of the charges, and ample time for the preparation of their
defense. The detaining power must provide advance notice of trial to a
representative of the POW and let them attend proceedings.

6. Protection against Act of violation: Prisoners of war at all time be proteced,

particularly against acts of violation.

7. Right to Respect of their persons and their Honour: Prisoners of war are
entitled in all circumstances to respect of their persons and their honour.

8. Maintenance of Prisoners: The detaining power shall be bound to provide free

of charge for maintenance for medical attention required by their state of health

9. Equality of treatment: The detaining power should treat prisoners equally

without any distinction based on nationality, religious belief or politically.
10. No Physical and Mental Torture: No physical or mental torture no any other
form of coercion may be inflicted on prisoners of war to secure from them
information of any kind whatever. Prisoners of war who refuse to answer may not
be threatned or insulted.

11. Right to Possession of Articles of Personal Use: All articles of personal use
except arms, military equipment and military documents shall remain in their
possession

12. Clothing and Food: The detaining power must provide clothing, footwear and
clothing, and must mend or replace these items regularly.