The First Geneva Convention (2-5)

 

In order for Dunant's concept of "neutrality" to acquire binding legal status, it was necessary for it to be embodied in an international treaty, which could only be concluded by a conference convened by a government, so the International Committee dedicated itself to bringing this about. The Swiss Government willingly undertook to convene such a conference in Geneva, and after Napoleon III announced his support for it, delegates from twelve countries gathered in Geneva in August 1864.

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Great Britain was represented by Dr Rutherford, Inspector General of Hospitals, and Sir Thomas Longmore, Professor of Military Surgery at the Army Medical School in Netley (5). Thus began the long standing association between the British Army Medical Services and the Red Cross Movement.

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The draft treaty prepared by Moynier was adopted with minimal changes, as the Geneva Convention of August 22, 1864, for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded in Armies in the Field.

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From now on ambulances, military hospitals and medical staff were to be "recognised as neutral and, as such, protected and respected by the belligerents.

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"Wounded or sick combatants, to whatever nation they belong, shall be collected and cared for".

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At the same time the red cross on a white ground was officially recognised as the protective emblem of the military medical services, with the specific purpose of protecting those wounded in war and those who care for them.

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The Red Crescent (3-4)

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The red cross on a white ground has no religious significance, having been adopted purely as a tribute to Switzerland. However, during the Russo-Turkish war of 1876, the Ottoman Society for Relief to the Wounded replaced it by a red crescent on a white ground. The red crescent has subsequently been adopted by several Islamic countries, and has been officially recognised as having equal status with the red cross. Thus, both the red cross and the red crescent flew over Allied hospitals and medical units, and protected their vehicles, during the Gulf War of 1990-9l.

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International Humanitarian Law (2,6)

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The First Geneva Convention of 1864 with its ten articles is a milestone in the history of humanity, and the cornerstone of international humanitarian law and the rules of war (6). Previously, any arrangements made to protect the victims of war had been informal, temporary and non-binding, and indeed any formal contract compelling belligerents to modify their actions on the battlefield had seemed inconceivable. From now on, it was accepted that international laws could apply to the

battlefield, and that the provisions of such Conventions were permanent and binding in the event of conflict on the States party to them, even dictating identical humanitarian behaviour towards non-signatories. From this treaty were to stem the Hague Conventions and the Four Geneva Conventions with their Additional Protocols.

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Dunant realised that the 1864 Geneva Convention was but a beginning (2). For years he fought, often single handedly, for the propagation of humanitarian ideals, and for the protection, by diplomatic conventions or international treaties, of prisoners of war, of wounded and shipwrecked members of armed forces at sea, and of civilians in wartime. In 1899, at the Hague, another

Convention was signed, adapting the principles of the Geneva Convention to warfare at sea. In 1906, the provisions of the 1864 Convention were improved and supplemented. In 1907, the Fourth Hague Convention defined the categories of combatants entitled to the status of prisoners of war when captured. However, thousands of prisoners were to be thrown into camps for years during the First World War before Dunant's goal of a convention that would lay down provisions for the

treatment of prisoners of war was achieved with the signing of the 1929 Convention.

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