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Persuading States to accept humanitarian treaties

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 January 2010

Hans-Peter Gasser
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Extract

At the close of the Diplomatic Conference on the Reaffirmation and Development of International Humanitarian Law (Geneva, 1974–1977), the representatives of the States party to the 1949 Geneva Conventions adopted, on 8 June 1977, two Protocols additional to those Conventions. Following a preparatory period including intense negotiations that lasted for nearly ten years, the new treaties were accepted, despite considerable obstacles, by the plenipotentiaries without a vote and without opposition. Though the solutions adopted for particularly controversial problems could not always suit everyone concerned, the diplomats, legal advisers and military experts who had taken part nevertheless had every reason to return to their capitals with a feeling of satisfaction.

Type
20th anniversary of the 1977 Additional Protocols
Information
International Review of the Red Cross (1961 - 1997) , Volume 37 , Special Issue 320: 20th anniversary of the 1977 Additional Protocols , October 1997 , pp. 529 - 537
Copyright
Copyright © International Committee of the Red Cross 1997

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References

1 Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I).

2 Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts (Protocol II).

3 See also, by the same author: “Die Genfer Zusatzprotokolle vom 8. Juni 1977; von der Diplomatischen Konferenz zur Ratifikation durch die Staaten”, C. Swinarski (ed.), Studies and essays on international humanitarian law and on the principles of the Red Cross, in honour of Jean Pictet, ICRC/Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Geneve/The Hague, 1984, pp. 147–165; and “Steps taken to encourage States to accept the 1977 Protocols”, IRRC, No. 258, 05–06 1987, pp. 259–266.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4 IRRC, No. 201, 12 1977, p. 507 et seq.Google Scholar

5 UNGA Resolution 32/44 of 8 December 1977.

6 Resolution VII of the 24th International Conference (Manila, 1981), IRRC, No. 225, 11–12 1981, p. 323 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Resolution II of the 25th International Conference (Geneva, 1986), IRRC, No. 255, 11–12 1986, p. 342 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. In its Resolution I, the 26th International Conference (Geneva, 1995) reaffirmed the appeal to the States by endorsing the Final Declaration of the International Conference for the Protection of War Victims (Geneva, 1993), IRRC, No. 310, 01–02 1996, p. 58.Google Scholar

7 Statutes of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement (1986), Article 5, para. 2 (g).

8 Ibid., Article 3, para. 1.

9 Sandoz/Swinarski/Zimmermann (eds.), Commentary on the Additional Protocols of 8 June 1977 to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, ICRC/Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Geneva, 1986.Google Scholar

10 See Berman, Paul, “The ICRC's Advisory Service on International Humanitarian Law: the challenge of national implementation”, IRRC, No. 312, 05–06 1996, pp. 338–347.Google Scholar

11 As at 31 October 1997.

12 With the exception of Azerbaijan: 1949 Conventions only.