International humanitarian law and human rights

International humanitarian law has a brief but eventful history. It was not until the second half of the nineteenth century that nations agreed on international rules to avoid needless suffering in wars — rules they bound themselves to observe in a Convention.

What is international humanitarian law? This body of law can be defined as the principles and rules which limit the use of violence in times of armed conflict. The aims are:

To protect persons who are not, or are no longer, directly engaged in hostilities — the wounded, shipwrecked, prisoners of war and civilians;

To limit the effects of violence in fighting to the attainment of the objectives of the conflict.

Three main currents have contributed to the making of international humanitarian law. They are the «law of Geneva», represented by the international Conventions and Protocols established under the aegis of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) with the protection of the victims of conflict as their central concern; the «law of The Hague», based on the results of the Peace Conferences in the capital of the Netherlands in 1899 and 1907, which dealt principally with the permissible means and methods of war, and the efforts of the United Nations to ensure that human rights are respected in armed conflicts and to limit the use of certain weapons.

As French and Austrian armies fought the battle of Solferino in northern Italy in June, 1859, the idea of international action to limit the suffering of the sick and wounded in wars was born in the mind of Henri Dunant, a young Swiss citizen.

Dunant found himself, more or less by accident, among thousands of French and Austrian wounded after the battle, and with a few other volunteers did what he could to ease their suffering. With four friends, Henri Dunant then set up the International Committee for Aid to the Wounded (soon to be renamed the International Committee of the Red Cross). Dunant's ideas met a wide response. In several countries national societies were founded and at a diplomatic conference in Geneva in 1864 the delegates of 16 European nations adopted the Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded in Armies in the Field. This document, the First Geneva Convention, enshrined the principles of universality and tolerance in matters of race, nationality and religion.

The Peace Conferences at The Hague in 1899 and 1907 adopted conventions defining the laws and customs of warfare and declarations forbidding certain practices, including the bombardment of undefended towns, the use of poisonous gases and soft-nosed bullets. The conferences failed to agree on a system of compulsory arbitration as a means of settling disputes which threaten peace.