Geneva Convention is a set of mandatory for all States of the rights norms aimed at legal protection of victims of major wars and local conflicts (both international scale, and domestic nature).This legal document is also greatly restricts the set of methods and means of warfare, based on the positions of humanism and humanity.The Geneva Convention is largely changed brutal guise of the war, making it more civilized and humane.
history of human civilization, by and large, we can study the history of the huge number of wars of varying degrees of cruelty and bloody.It is almost impossible to find at least one century, to do without armed confrontation states and peoples.By the second half of the nineteenth century, when the war began to acquire an unprecedented scale, massacres and when science in symbiosis with the technical progress has been able to provide military barbaric weapons of mass destruction, there is an urgent need to establish such an important legal document as the Geneva Convention.It is ordered by the relation between the parties to follow the armed confrontations and reduce civilian casualties.
Geneva Convention of 1864, which became the first such document in the history, had an outstanding value that lies in the fact that it is a multilateral treaty permanent, open to voluntary accession by all countries.This short document, consisting of a total of ten articles, marked the beginning of contract law throughout the war, as well as all rules of humanitarian standards in their modern interpretation.
already two years later the first Geneva Convention was held, so to speak, a baptism of fire on the battlefields of the Austro-Prussian War.Prussia, which is one of the first countries to ratify the treaty, adhered to its provisions.The Prussian Army had well-equipped hospitals and the Red Cross was always there where needed his help.Another was the situation in the opposing camp.Austria is not a signatory to the convention, just throwing the wounded on the battlefield.
purpose of subsequent editions of this international treaty, based on the experience of past wars, was the protection not only of the rights of prisoners of war, but also people who are not directly involved in hostilities (civilians and religious officials, medical professionals), as well as the shipwrecked, sickthe wounded, regardless of which of the warring parties they belong to.Some objects, such as hospitals, ambulances and various civil agencies too, are protected by the relevant articles of the Geneva Convention and can not be attacked or become the scene of battles.
This normative international document also defines the prohibited methods of warfare.In particular, it is prohibited to use civilians for military purposes, it prohibited the use of biological and chemical weapons, anti-personnel mines.The deep meaning of the Geneva Convention is trying to ensure a reasonable balance between the military and tactical necessity on the one hand and humanity on the other.With the changing nature of the conduct and scope of war there is a need in the new edition of the Geneva Convention.For example, according to statistics of the last century, out of every hundred injured in wartime are eighty-five civilians.In particular this applies to the bloodiest war in history - World War II, when almost every State, to participate in it, not only violated the provisions of the Geneva Convention, but also all conceivable principles of universal morality.
Four Geneva Conventions of 1949, two additional protocols of 1977, are bulky and multipage documents are universal.They signed 188 countries.It should be noted that the wording of conventions binding on all states, even the non-participants.
