A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE LAWS OF WAR

Attempts to put limits on wartime behavior have been around since the beginning of recorded history and there have been numerous attempts to codify the rules of appropriate military conduct.

In the sixth century BCE, Chinese warrior Sun Tzu suggested putting limits on the way that wars were conducted.

Around 200 BCE, the notion of war crimes as such appeared in the Hindu code of Manu.

In 1305, the Scottish national hero Sir William Wallace was tried for the wartime murder of civilians.

Hugo Grotius wrote "On the Law of War and Peace" in 1625, focusing on the humanitarian treatment of civilians.

In 1865, Confederate officer Henry Wirz was executed for murdering Federal prisoners of war at the Andersonville prisoner of war camp. He was only one of several people who were tried for similar offenses.

In fact, it's been the past century and a half that has really seen a qualitative jump in the degree to which constraints have been placed on warring parties, and only this century that an international body has been formed to police the nations of the world.

The first Geneva Convention was signed in 1864 to protect the sick and wounded in war time. This first Geneva Convention was inspired by Henri Dunant, founder of the Red Cross. Ever since then, the Red Cross has played an integral part in the drafting and enforcement of the Geneva Conventions.

These included the 1899 treaties, concerning asphyxiating gases and expanding bullets. In 1907, 13 separate treaties were signed, followed in 1925 by the Geneva Gas Protocol, which prohibited the use of poison gas and the practice of bacteriological warfare.

In 1929, two more Geneva Conventions dealt with the treatment of the wounded and prisoners of war. In 1949, four Geneva Conventions extended protections to those shipwrecked at sea and to civilians.

The Hague Convention on the Protection of Cultural Property was signed in 1954, the United Nations Convention on Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Techniques followed in 1977, together with two Additional Protocols to the Geneva Conventions of 1949, extending their protections to civil wars.

There is no one "Geneva Convention." Like any other body of law, the laws of war have been assembled piecemeal, and are, in fact, still under construction.

It is impossible to produce a complete and up-to-date list of war crimes. Even today, weapon systems such as land mines are being debated at the highest levels of international policy.

What follows is a basic reference to the most common protections and prohibitions, as provided for in the four 1949 Geneva Conventions and the two 1977 protocols.

International Rules About Soldiers

The Geneva Conventions and supplementary protocols make a distinction between combatants and civilians.

The two groups must be treated differently by the warring sides and, therefore, combatants must be clearly distinguishable from civilians.

Although this obligation benefits civilians by making it easier for the warring sides to avoid targeting non-combatants, soldiers also benefit because they become immune from prosecution for acts of war.

For example, a civilian who shoots a sholdier may be liable for murder while a soldier who shoots an enemy soldier and is captured may not be punished.

In order for the distinction between combatants and civilians to be clear, combatants must wear uniforms and carry their weapons openly during military operations and during preparation for them.

The exceptions are medical and religious personnel, who are considered non-combatants even though they may wear uniforms. Medical personnel may also carry small arms to use in self-defense if illegally attacked.

The other exception are mercenaries, who are specifically excluded from protections. Mercenaries are defined as soldiers who are not nationals of any of the parties to the conflict and are paid more than the local soldiers.

Combatants who deliberately violate the rules about maintaining a clear separation between combatant and noncombatant groups — and thus endanger the civilian population — are no longer protected by the Geneva Convention.

Combatants who do fall within the guidelines of the Geneva Conventions enjoy the following protections:

• Prisoners of war must be treated humanely. Specifically, prisoners must not be subject to torture or to medical or scientific experiments of any kind. They must also be protected against violence, intimidation, insults and public curiosity. The public display of POWs is also prohibited.
• When questioned — in the prisoner's native language — prisoners of war must only give their names, ranks, birth dates and serial numbers. Prisoners who refuse to answer may not be threatened or mistreated.
• Prisoners of war must be immediately evacuated away from a combat zone and must not be unnecessarily exposed to danger. They may not be used as human shields.
• Finally, and most importantly, prisoners of war may not be punished for the acts they committed during the fighting unless the opposing side would have punished its own soldiers for those acts as well.

International Rules About Civilians

Both the fourth Geneval Convention and the two Additional Protocols extend protections to civilians during war time.

• Civilians are not to be subject to attack. This includes direct attacks on civilians and indiscriminate attacks against areas in which civilians are present.
• There is to be no destruction of property unless justified by military necessity.
• Individuals or groups must not be deported, regardless of motive.
• Civilians must not be used as hostages.
• Civilians must not be subject to outrages upon personal dignity.
• Civilians must not be tortured, raped or enslaved.
• Civilians must not be subject to collective punishment and reprisals.
• Civilians must not receive differential treatment based on race, religion, nationality, or political allegiance.
• Warring parties must not use or develop biological or chemical weapons and must not allow children under 15 to participate in hostilities or to be recruited into the armed forces.

International Rules About Journalists

Customs have changed since the 1949 conventions were signed. In the first half of this century, journalists were considered civilian members of military, often wore uniforms, and became prisoners of war when captured.

The first, second and third Geneva Conventions extend to war correspondents all the protections due to combatants. They were not to be treated as spies and, even though their notebooks and film could be confiscated, they did not have to respond to interrogation. If they were sick or wounded, they must receive medical treatment and, if they were captured, they must be treated humanely.

This changed with the adoption of the 1977 Protocols, which explicitly recognized journalists to be civilians and due to all the civilian protections.

Now, journalists must not be deliberately targeted, detained, or otherwise mistreated any more than any other civilian.

This means that journalists now have an obligation to differentiate themselves from combatants by not wearing uniforms or openly carrying firearms.

Grievance Procedures

If a person or a group of people feels that their rights have been violated, there are a number of agencies and organization to whom they may turn for help.

Many of these agencies and organizations collect case histories and other documentation of war crimes and human rights abuses for the purposes of distributing them to the media. A few organizations will even help journalists find sources and transportation. Some representatives of these organizations speak on the record, others only for background information.

When dealing with such an organization, the journalist should respect the organization's official policies when it comes to press contacts while at the same time recognizing that some may also provide additiona information provided that some requirements are met. These requirements may include not attributing the information to that organization, finding a second source for the information or using the information in such a way that it does not expose the organization's employees or sources to any danger. These are all reasonable requests and a reporter should abide by these restrictions in order not to jeopardize the agencies' humanitarian mission or future relationships with journalists.

These agencies and organizations include, but are not limited to:

• The International Committee of the Red Cross
• The United Nations, The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, And The International Criminal Court.
• Committee on the Rights of the Child
• War Crimes Tribunal on Former Yugoslavia
• International War Crimes Tribunal for Rwanda
• Inter-American Court on Human Rights
• Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
• Amnesty International
• Human Rights Watch
• Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders)
• Local human rights groups, military commanders, elected officials

More Treaties

A number of other treaties have been signed, covering such issues as human rights, th euse of particular weapons, and genocide. They include:

• Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948
• Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide of 1948
• Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict of 1954
• International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination of 1965
• International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 1966
• International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of 1966
• Convention on the Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity of 1968.
• Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women of 1979
• Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May be Deemed to be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects. Geneva of 1980.
• Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment of 1984
• Convention on the Rights of the Child of 1989
• Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction of 1993
• Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction of 1997