The Court rejected this argument and held that consent exised since September 11, , through an Authorization for Use of Military Forces AUMF , a Congressional resolution which empowered the President to use all necessary and appropriate forces against any nations, organizations, or persons that he determined to have planned, authorized, committed, or aided in the September 11, attacks.
Please help us improve our site! No thank you. Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols Primary tabs Note: This article addresses the international humanitarian law , or law of war. History The original Geneva Convention was adopted in to establish the red cross emblem signifying neutral status and protection of medical services and volunteers.
Overview The Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols is a body of Public International Law , also known as the Humanitarian Law of Armed Conflicts, whose purpose is to provide minimum protections, standards of humane treatment, and fundamental guarantees of respect to individuals who become victims of armed conflicts.
Convention I : This Convention protects wounded and infirm soldiers and medical personnel who are not taking active part in hostility against a Party. Convention II : This agreement extended the protections described in the first Convention to shipwrecked soldiers and other naval forces, including special protections afforded to hospital ships. Convention III : One of the treaties created during the Convention, this defined "Prisoner of War," and accorded such prisoners proper and humane treatment as specified by the first Convention.
Convention IV : Under this Convention, civilians are afforded the same protections from inhumane treatment and attack afforded to sick and wounded soldiers in the first Convention.
Protocol I : The signing Nations agreed to further restrictions on the treatment of "protected persons" according to the original Conventions, and clarification of the terms used in the Conventions was introduced. Protocol II : In this Protocol, the fundamentals of "humane treatment" were further clarified. Protocol III : Adopted in to add another emblem, the "red crystal," to the list of emblems used to identify neutral humanitarian aide workers. The United States has signed and ratified the four Conventions of and Protocol III of , but has not ratified the two Protocols of , though it has signed them.
Disputes arising under the Conventions or the Protocols are settled by courts of the member nations Article 49 of Convention I or by international tribunals.
It requires humane treatment for all persons in enemy hands, without discrimination. It specifically prohibits murder, mutilation, torture , the taking of hostages, unfair trial, and cruel, humiliating and degrading treatment. It requires that the wounded, sick and shipwrecked be collected and cared for. It grants the ICRC the right to offer its services to the parties to the conflict. It calls on the parties to the conflict to bring all or parts of the Geneva Conventions into force through "special agreements.
Given that most armed conflicts today are non-international, applying Common Article 3 is of the utmost importance.
Its full respect is required. Applicability of the Geneva Conventions The Conventions apply to all cases of declared war between signatory nations. This is the original sense of applicability, which predates the version. The Conventions apply to all cases of armed conflict between two or more signatory nations, even in the absence of a declaration of war. This photo shows the intact surroundings of the celebrated citadel complex — with origins going back to the 3rd millenium BC — before the war.
The mosque complex dating from the 13th century, which is located directly in front of the Citadel of Aleppo, was heavily damaged when the Syrian Army used it as a military base.
The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus is one of the oldest mosques in the world, having been built at the beginning of the 8th century. With more than 1, small shops, Aleppo's old bazaar, or souk, was the heart of the storied Syrian city — the largest by population in the country before the civil war began. But the Syrian conflict destroyed much of the old city where the bazaar is located, and large parts of the labyrinthine structure remain devastated today.
The more than 2,year-old temple that was consecrated in honor of the Mesopotamian god Bel was a highly preserved ruin in the oasis town of Palmyra before the war.
However its central building, the cella, and its sanctuaries were blown up by the so-called Islamic State in The reliefs and architectural elements pictured above are from a temple tomb excavated between and in a cooperation between the German Archaeological Institute and the Syrian Directorate of Antiquities.
A photo taken in , when no one suspected the suffering and destruction the city would experience barely a decade later. It shows Aleppo's citadel peacefully overlooking the Old Town bathed in a golden light. At the time, the minaret of the Great Mosque had just been scaffolded for renovation. Aleppo has become a symbol of Syria's civil war.
Large parts of the once flourishing metropolis, Syria's former economic powerhouse, are no longer recognizable. The large Waqf complex of the Abshir Pasha mosque left , and the Behramiyah mosque right in the historic Al-Jdayde district suffered catastrophic damage during the conflict. Roth pointed out that frequently, national governments can be reluctant to hold their own war criminals to account.
But, he said, the international community has been finding ways around those loopholes, to bring those who violate the treaties to account. But that process has been blocked by the Russian and, at times, the Chinese veto in the UN Security Council … and it has been necessary to come up with other routes to accountability. One such route, he added, has been through the UN General Assembly — where there is no veto — which, in , voted overwhelmingly to create an impartial international unit to investigate the violations in Syria , "basically a prosecutor for Syrian war crimes without a tribunal.
Read more: Syrian war crimes accountability mechanism short on funds. In addition, a number of European countries have also decided to make use of a principle in international law known as universal jurisdiction to begin prosecuting war criminals abroad, in place of reluctant national authorities.
Every day, DW's editors send out a selection of the day's hard news and quality feature journalism. Sign up for the newsletter here. Fatima was gang-raped during attacks on Rohingya Muslims as part of Myanmar's ethnic cleansing campaign. The changing flow of refugees has made it hard for governments and NGOs to keep up.
IHL generally protects refugees in the same way as other civilians who are affected by armed conflict. Some of these rules are adapted for refugees in order to reflect their particular vulnerability in the absence of protection by their State of nationality.
IHL also protects persons who have not crossed an international frontier, but have, for whatever reason, also fled their homes. They're usually referred to as "internally displaced persons. As said above, torture and other forms of ill treatment are absolutely prohibited. When committed in the context of armed conflict, they constitute a war crime, which may be punished by a national or international court.
People who have suffered torture may seek recourse against the responsible authority within their domestic legal system or by making a complaint to a competent human rights tribunal or human rights body. How does IHL respond to the use of autonomous weapons like robots and drones?
IHL limits the right of parties to develop and use new means or methods of warfare like these. Whether or not a particular autonomous weapon is lawful depends on how it works and whether it can be used in a way that complies with international law, for example the requirement to distinguish between combatants and civilians. Organizations designated as "terrorist" are bound by IHL if they are organized armed groups engaged in armed confrontations of a certain intensity with another organized armed group or a State.
In situations of armed conflict, IHL must be observed by all parties. When the situation of violence does not amount to an armed conflict, IHL does not apply to the armed group but the individual members of the organization remain accountable under applicable national law. A person must not be punished for an offence he or she has not personally committed. IHL reflects this principle by prohibiting collective punishment and reprisals against civilians.
Civilians are protected against attack, unless and for such time as they take a direct part in hostilities. How does IHL determine what is and isn't acceptable in time of war? Who are the people making these decisions? IHL is developed by States through codification in legally binding documents or State practice.
These two processes often overlap, and sometimes they are influenced by others such as the ICRC, international organizations or non-government organizations. This process continues today as the international community responds to new challenges. States and armed groups break the rules of war all the time. Why and how exactly is IHL still relevant? The instances where IHL is violated receive far greater attention than the consistency with which IHL is respected and applied.
In many ways, the fact that compliance is unremarkable demonstrates the effectiveness of IHL in shaping parties' behaviour. The Geneva Conventions came about at a time when war was fought between States. Today the majority of conflicts involve non-State armed groups as well.
How has IHL kept up with the changing nature of conflict?
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