Canada and the World
Current Events with a Canadian Perspective
Last update
27 December 2010
Geneva Conventions Need Updating
Inter-
is an entirely new conflict, and some battles
are just struggles between criminal gangs
In January 2003, an informal meeting of experts from the governments of several countries, the Red Cross, and a number of scholars was held at Harvard University in the United States.
The aim was to set an agenda for further discussion and research on how to control armed conflict.
The first Geneva Conventions were signed by 13 nations in 1864
Disobeying the Rules of War a Common Problem
Tougher protocols to the original Geneva Conventions were introduced in 1977. However, many nations have yet to sign on to these rules. Neither India nor Pakistan, which have fought each other three times and are both having to deal with insurgencies, have agreed to obey the protocols.
The protocols also lack the signatures of Afghanistan, Burma, Iran, Israel, Malaysia, and the United States; although, many other nations who have added their signatures with pomp and flourish, pay no attention to them.
What is a Legitimate Military Target?
One issue that needs to be addressed is what constitutes a legitimate military target. There’s not much doubt that ammunition storage depots or factories building tanks are fair game; but, what about a radio or television station?
In NATO’s 1999 bombing campaign against Serbia, the Radio-
Although The Independent’s Robert Fisk, who was in Belgrade at the time of the bombing, felt the TV station should have been off limits. On April 24, 1999, he reported:
“Surely NATO wouldn’t waste its bombs on this tiresome station with its third-
Do Terrorists belong under
the Geneva Convention Umbrella?
Another head-
Conventions. Doing that offers terrorists
some legitimacy. It extends to them protections they have shown clearly they won’t
extend to others.
Why, ask those engaged in armed conflict with terrorists, should they be forced to fight clean when their enemies fight dirty?
War Crime or Retaliation in Iraq?
Without explicit rules for dealing with terrorists the kind of thing that Mary Mostert wrote about on the renewamerica.org website on November 19, 2004 are going to happen:
“MSNBC reported on Wednesday in the Fallujah fighting that ‘a U.S. Marine was killed
and five others were wounded when the booby-
Mostert pointed out that this happened on “the same day that NBC’s Kevin Sites reported that a U.S. Marine killed ‘a wounded and apparently unarmed Iraqi prisoner inside a mosque.’ Sites observed that ‘the Iraqi was a wounded prisoner and did not pose a threat.’ ”
There have been many such stories told from recent armed conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan. Trying to bring some civility and humane behaviour to such emotionally charged situations is going to prove extremely difficult.
Sources
“War In The Balkans: ‘Once you Kill People because you Don’t Like what they Say, you Change the Rules of War.’ ” Robert Fisk, The Independent, April 24, 1999.
“The Geneva Convention Does not Apply to Terrorists.” Mary Mostert, Renew America, November 19, 2004.
© Canada and the World, December 2010
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HENRI DUNANT
AND THE GENEVA CONVENTIONS
A young Swiss businessman named Henri Dunant was in the Italian town of Solferino on June 24, 1859. This was the day on which the armies of France and Austria lined up against each other outside the community to do battle.
The conflict was a horrible affair involving 270,000 men. By the end of the day as many as 40,000 of the soldiers were dead and as many more were left dreadfully wounded on the battlefield.
The day after the fighting Henri Dunant ventured out onto the killing ground and was utterly horrified by what he saw.
Later, he wrote about his sobering experience in A Memory of Solferino. “When the sun came up on the 25th,” wrote Dunant, “it disclosed the most dreadful sights imaginable…”
“The poor, wounded men were ghostly pale and exhausted. Some, who had been the most badly hurt, had a stupefied look. Others were anxious and excited by nervous strain and shaken by spasmodic trembling. Some, who had gaping wounds already beginning to show infection, were almost crazed with suffering. They begged to be put out of their misery; and writhed with faces distorted in the grip of the death struggle.”
The experience spurred Dunant to do something to stop the carnage. Back in Switzerland, and with the help of four friends, he set up what would eventually become the International Committee of the Red Cross in 1863.
A year later, these same five men organized a conference in Geneva, Switzerland.
Representatives from 13 nations attended the conference, which wound up with the signing, in August 1864, of the first Geneva Convention.