Our Shared Humanity: The Geneva Conventions in 2020

Andrew Hill, Associate Professor at St. Philip’s College, will address the philosophical and theological foundations of military ethics and international humanitarian law (IHL) found in the Geneva Conventions.

The Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols form the core of international humanitarian law, which regulates the conduct of armed conflict and seeks to limit its effects. They protect people not taking part in hostilities and those who are no longer doing so. The endurance of the Geneva Conventions shows us what is possible when States take collective and individual action to uphold the law and humanitarian principles (Maurer, 2019).

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) acts as the guardian of international humanitarian law, a complex role that is closely connected with its own foundation and was later formally entrusted to it by the international community. The ICRC has worked on battlefields, and has made a very direct contribution to the process of codification, during which its proposals were examined, and which has led to regular revision and extension of international humanitarian law, notably in 1906, 1929, 1949 and 1977 (Sandoz, 1998).