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The newspaper La Jornada
Tuesday, August 13, 2024, p. 25

Geneva. On their 75th anniversary, the world’s best-known standards for protecting civilians, detainees and wounded soldiers in war have been widely ignored – from Gaza to Syria, Ukraine and Myanmar – and advocates are calling for a new commitment to international humanitarian law.

The Geneva Conventions, adopted by almost every country since they were finalised on 12 August 1949, have been pushed to the sidelines as militias and national forces routinely ignore the rules of war.

International humanitarian law is under pressure, ignored, undermined to justify violencesaid yesterday Mirjana Spoljaric, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which oversees the conventions.

The world must recommit to this strong protection framework for armed conflict, one that follows the premise of protecting life rather than justifying death.he said.

The conventions, which date back to the 19th century, aim to set standards for the conduct of war: they ban torture and sexual violence, require humane treatment of detainees and order searches for missing persons.

The documents reflect a global consensus that all wars have limitsSpoljaric told reporters at ICRC headquarters in Geneva. Dehumanization, both of enemy combatants and of the civilian population, is a path to ruin and disaster..

The Red Cross says the conventions are needed more than ever, with more than 120 conflicts active around the world, a six-fold increase since 1999, when the conventions turned 50.

Today, many countries and fighters exploit loopholes in international humanitarian law, or interpret it to suit themselves. Hospitals, schools and ambulances have been attacked, civilians have been killed and countries have denied access to detainees.