What Are the Geneva Conventions?

Jan. 30, 2002 -- 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.

In 1949, the four conventions were revised and signed to form the Geneva Conventions. Two protocols have been added since, dealing with the prohibition of methods of warfare and non-international armed conflicts, or civil wars.

Altogether, the Geneva Conventions have nearly 200 signatory countries. If a signatory country breaches the conventions it may be referred to the International Court of Justice in the Hague.

A Finer Point to the Conventions

Today, the Geneva Conventions as they apply to prisoners of war are at the heart of the dispute over the detainees being held at the U.S. base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

That treaty specifies, among other things, that prisoners of war have the right not to cooperate with interrogators, and the right to be returned home after the cessation of hostilities, unless convicted of war crimes.

American officials have argued that treating al Qaeda and Taliban members like prisoners of war would not be entirely realistic, and have instead classified them as "battlefield detainees."

The detainees did not belong to a country or behave as an army, and neither wear uniforms nor have an insignia, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld argued on Monday.

"They are a terrorist network. It would be a total misunderstanding of the Geneva Convention if one considers al Qaeda — a terrorist network — to be an army."

The Taliban was "tied tightly at the waist to al Qaeda," Rumsfeld later added, and said there wasn't "any question in my mind but that they are not, they would not rise to the standard of a prisoner of war."

Analysts have speculated that American officials are also more reluctant to designate the detainees as prisoners of war, seeing them as far more dangerous and dedicated to their cause than enemy soliders would be.

Arguments Against Obsolescence

But even though al Qaeda, as a stateless organization, appears to be a new sort of enemy, experts said it wasn't likely that the United States was eager to do away with recognizing the Geneva Conventions altogether.

Some administration officials have pointed out that the detainees may already enjoy a significant amount of protection under the Geneva Conventions.

The conventions already state if there is any doubt as to how a captive in "international armed conflicts," or conflicts between states, should be classified, they should "enjoy the protection of the present Convention until such time as their status has been determined by a competent tribunal."

Most experts have argued that these standards may not apply to al Qaeda members, since they belonged to a stateless organization. But there is debate on whether or not members of the Taliban belonged to a legitimate government. Since only three other countries recognized the regime, some argue the United States was not fighting another state.

But others say the Taliban was clearly in charge of Afghanistan, and so the Geneva Conventions must be applied.

Nevertheless, experts said it was unlikely that Washington would take its obligations under international law lightly.

Administration officials are aware that any violation of the Geneva Conventions could come back to haunt U.S. forces as well — especially for groups like the special forces, who do not always wear "fixed and distinctive sign [of allegiance] recognizable from a distance."