What Are the Geneva Conventions?
Jan. 30 -- Up until Sept. 11, few Americans knew or cared much about the Geneva Conventions.
Now, the Geneva Conventions are a part of daily discourse in Washington, a measure of the treatment of al Qaeda and Taliban detainees being held at an American military base in Cuba, just 90 miles away.
The agreements have also become a bone of contention between the Bush administration and civil rights activists.
Civil rights groups and some foreign governments have called for the Cuba detainees to be awarded prisoner of war status.
The Bush administration, however, has so far defined its prisoners as "battlefield detainees" so they will not be directly bound by them but insist the spirit of the conventions are being observed.
Adding to the stakes, a Pakistani group is holding an American journalist hostage, demanding better treatment for prisoners taken from Afghanistan.
A Foundation for International Humanitarian Law
The Geneva Conventions are a series of treaties that have set the standard for international humanitarian law for almost 150 years.
They are administered by and provide the legal foundation to the International Committee of the Red Cross, or ICRC, a civilian relief corps dedicated to providing impartial and neutral protection and assistance to victims of conflict worldwide.
The conventions were started by Henry Dunant, a Swiss merchant who witnessed the battle of Solferino in Italy in 1859, in which 40,000 men were killed and wounded in a single day.
Five years later, in 1864, Durant's efforts to allay future tragedies resulted in the creation of the first Geneva Convention, in which 12 countries drafted an agreement on the treatment of battlefield casualties, and the creation of the Red Cross.
A second Geneva Convention followed in 1899, extending its principles to war at sea.
The third and fourth Geneva Conventions were ratified a few years later, respectively determining protection provided to prisoners of war and civilians in times of war.
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