Switzerland's Mirjana Spoljaric Egger, President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, speaks to media during a media briefing to mark the 75th anniversary of the adoption of the Geneva Conventions on 12 August 1949, at the ICRC headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, Monday, August 12, 2024. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP)
GENEVA (AP) — At its 75th anniversary, the world's best-known rulebook on the protection of civilians, detainees, and wounded soldiers in war has been widely ignored — from Gaza to Syria to Ukraine to Myanmar and beyond — and its defenders are calling for a new commitment to international humanitarian law.
The Geneva Conventions, which have been adopted by nearly all the world's countries since they were finalized on Aug. 12, 1949, are back on their heels as armed militia groups and national forces regularly disregard the rules of war.
"International humanitarian law is under strain, disregarded, undermined to justify violence," Mirjana Spoljaric, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which oversees the conventions, said Monday.
“And that’s why the world must recommit to this robust, protective framework for armed conflict—one that saves lives rather than rationalizes death,” she added.
“In a divided world, the Geneva Conventions and international humanitarian law embody universal values that preserve lives and dignity,” Spoljaric said. “They are essential to preventing and protecting against the worst effects of war, and ensuring that everyone, even an enemy, is treated as a human being.”
In 1999, the ICRC spoke of 20 active conflicts. Today, we see more than 120. Given the scale, Spoljaric is proposing four means to reduce suffering: parties to armed conflict must make a renewed and profound commitment to the Geneva Conventions, adhering to the letter and the spirit of the law; tangible humanitarian improvements in places affected by armed conflict must be made; states should ratify and uphold IHL treaties, especially the Geneva Conventions’ additional protocols; and states must affirm that the use of new technologies of warfare – AI, cyber and information operations – strictly adhere to IHL, and develop new limits on autonomous weapon systems.
Spoljaric said the world has witnessed massive suffering in the armed conflicts between Israel and Gaza, and Russia and Ukraine. Violence in Ethiopia has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives. Fighting has displaced 8 million in Sudan. Protracted conflicts in the Central African Republic, Colombia, DRC, Myanmar, Syria, and Yemen all take a grinding human cost.
“Where are the peacemakers? Where are the men and women leading the negotiations and preserving the space to do so?” Spoljaric asked. “I urge world leaders to negotiate. Respect for IHL during conflict can contribute to the transition to peace by removing at least some obstacles to peacemaking.”
She said around the world’s war zones, the sanctity of hospitals is disregarded, humanitarian access is impeded, enemy fighters and civilian populations are dehumanized, and humanitarian workers – including ICRC and Red Cross Red Crescent Movement colleagues – are killed.
“The deployment of new technologies may worsen these dangerous tendencies. If algorithms are trained on lax targeting rules, civilian casualties will increase. Without new legal limits, autonomous weapons might operate with little restraint, making life-and-death decisions without human oversight,” she warned.