50 Fun Facts About Geneva Conventions

The Geneva Conventions say their red cross emblem was formed by reversing the colors of which country's flag?

Switzerland's flag is a white cross on red, and the treaty calls the reversed design a compliment to that country. The same text bars businesses from imitating either the emblem or the national arms.

Besides a birth date, which details must a captured soldier give if questioned under the Third Geneva Convention?

Name, rank and serial number are all a prisoner has to reveal, and the treaty bans torture or any other coercion to get more. A captive who refuses to say more may not even be threatened or insulted.

Which product does the Third Geneva Convention say prisoners of war must be permitted to use and buy in camp canteens?

Tobacco gets a sentence of its own in the treaty, which says its use shall be permitted. Canteens must also stock soap and food, and any profits have to be spent for the prisoners' benefit.

The four Geneva Conventions in force today were drawn up in response to the horrors of which war?

World War II and the war-crimes trials that followed it pushed diplomats to rewrite the older treaties in 1949. Three of the four conventions revised earlier texts; the fourth was the first devoted to protecting civilians.

Which emblem did the Ottoman Empire start using in the 1870s in place of the Geneva Convention's red cross?

The Red Crescent appeared during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78, when the Ottoman government feared a cross would alienate its Muslim soldiers. The treaties formally recognized it in 1929.

Which battlefield nurse founded the American Red Cross and pressed three presidents to ratify the Geneva Convention?

Clara Barton first met the Red Cross on a trip to Europe in 1869 and spent years campaigning at home. Washington finally joined the treaty in 1882, the year after she founded her society.

Which 1859 battle, whose untended wounded shocked a traveling businessman, inspired the first Geneva Convention?

Solferino ended with tens of thousands of wounded, dying and dead lying on the field with little care. The businessman persuaded local villagers to nurse men from both armies, then wrote a book urging a treaty.

Which vessels must be painted white all over under the Second Geneva Convention, which bans attacking or capturing them?

Hospital ships must also show dark red crosses, as large as possible, on the hull and upper surfaces. In return for that protection they may not send coded radio messages.

Under the Third Geneva Convention, enlisted prisoners of war must still do what on meeting their captors' officers?

Enlisted prisoners must salute them, showing enemy officers the same respect their own army's rules demand. Captured officers need only salute their seniors and the camp commander.

Which weapon was outlawed by the Geneva Protocol of 1925, a treaty separate from the Geneva Conventions?

Poison gas and germ warfare fall under the 1925 protocol, while the conventions themselves protect people rather than regulate weapons. The protocol bans only their use and says nothing about making or storing them.

Which businessman from Geneva shared the first Nobel Peace Prize for inspiring the Red Cross and the Geneva Conventions?

Henry Dunant went bankrupt in 1867 and spent decades in poverty and obscurity before the 1901 prize. A newspaper story had brought him back to public notice only six years earlier.

Which US president issued the Lieber Code, a rulebook for armies in the field that predates the first Geneva Convention?

Abraham Lincoln put the code into force in April 1863, sixteen months before the treaty was signed. Its author was a German-born legal scholar and a veteran of the Napoleonic Wars.

Which city hosted the 1899 and 1907 peace conferences whose treaties on weapons sit alongside the Geneva Conventions?

The Hague treaties govern the weapons and methods of fighting, while Geneva's protect the people caught up in a war. In 1949 a Geneva convention replaced the 1907 Hague rules on the wounded at sea.

Which emblem did a 2005 protocol to the Geneva Conventions add as a sign with no religious or national meaning?

The Red Crystal has the same legal status as the two older signs. A national society may also display its own emblem inside the crystal's red frame.

Which country used the Red Lion and Sun, an emblem the Geneva Conventions still recognize, until 1980?

Iran dropped the emblem because the lion and sun were tied to the monarchy its revolution had just deposed. It reserved the right to bring the symbol back, and the treaties still list it.

Which task does the Third Geneva Convention class as dangerous labor that prisoners of war may do only as volunteers?

Clearing mines is the one job the treaty singles out as dangerous. Prisoners also cannot be given work that would be seen as humiliating for a soldier of the army holding them.

When must prisoners of war be released and sent home under the Third Geneva Convention?

Once active hostilities end, prisoners must go home without delay. The 1929 treaty had tied their return to the conclusion of peace, which caused trouble when no peace treaty followed the fighting.

Which war-zone professionals does Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions say must be treated as civilians?

Journalists get the same protection as any civilian under Article 79. War correspondents accredited to an army are treated differently: if captured, they become prisoners of war.

The 1949 Geneva Conventions were drawn up in two equally authentic languages: English and which other?

French stands beside English as an authentic text of all four treaties. The conventions also ordered official translations into Russian and Spanish.

Which practice does the Fourth Geneva Convention ban in Article 33, along with all intimidation or terrorism?

Collective punishment is ruled out by the article's opening line: no one may be punished for an offence he or she has not personally committed. Reprisals against civilians and their property are banned too.

Which wartime practice does the Fourth Geneva Convention outlaw in a blunt sentence just three words long?

Pillage is prohibited, says Article 33, and nothing more. The First Convention carries the idea onto the battlefield, where armies must stop the wounded and the dead from being robbed.

Which tactic is banned by the Fourth Geneva Convention rule that a civilian's presence cannot make a target immune?

Human shields are outlawed for captured soldiers as well: the Third Convention forbids holding prisoners of war where their presence would protect a military site from attack.

Which practice does Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions ban alongside murder, torture and degrading treatment?

Taking hostages is one of four things the article bans at any time and in any place. The last on the list is executing anyone without a judgment from a properly constituted court.

Under Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, what may an occupier not transfer into the territory it holds?

Its own population may not be moved in, and the same article bars the reverse: deporting or forcibly transferring local people out of the territory, whatever the motive.

Which phrase do the Geneva Conventions use for fighters put out of action by wounds, sickness or surrender?

Hors de combat means out of the fight, and anyone in that state may not be deliberately targeted. The treaties protect such soldiers alongside medical staff and civilians in the battle zone.

In Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, the US Supreme Court ruled that the Geneva Conventions protected detainees held at which site?

Guantanamo Bay detainees were covered by Common Article 3, the court held in 2006, so the military commissions set up to try them were unlawful. Congress passed a new commissions law within months.

The UN set up special courts to try Geneva Convention violations in the former Yugoslavia and which African country?

Rwanda's court and its Yugoslav twin were created by the Security Council, which used its authority under the UN Charter to investigate and prosecute the alleged crimes.

Which fighters does Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions say have no right to be treated as prisoners of war?

Mercenaries are denied the status of lawful fighters as well. The protocol's Article 47 gives the most widely accepted international definition of the term, though some countries have never endorsed it.

Which group of countries has ratified all four Geneva Conventions of 1949?

Every UN member state has ratified them, along with the Holy See, Palestine and the Cook Islands. Very few treaties have been accepted so widely.

Which is the only kind of work captured sergeants can be made to do under the Third Geneva Convention?

Supervision is the limit for sergeants and other non-commissioned officers, while officers cannot be compelled to do any job at all. Either group may ask for something suitable to do.

How do enlisted prisoners of war choose their camp representatives every six months under the Third Geneva Convention?

By secret ballot is the rule in camps of enlisted men; where officers are held, the senior one speaks for everyone. The representative deals with the camp authorities and visiting relief agencies.

What must prisoners of war be allowed to send within a week of reaching a camp under the Third Geneva Convention?

A card to family, known as a capture card, tells relatives where the prisoner is and how he is. A second one goes to a central tracing agency, which was set up within the Red Cross.

What is the heaviest penalty the Third Geneva Convention allows for a failed escape attempt?

Thirty days' confinement is the ceiling, because a failed escape is only a disciplinary matter, even on a repeat try. A prisoner who gets clean away and is caught again later cannot be penalized for it at all.

Which item, made in two halves so one can stay with the body, identifies the dead under the First Geneva Convention?

The identity disc, the tag many soldiers call a dog tag, is split when its wearer dies. One half is sent home through an information bureau with any will and valuables found on the dead.

Besides medical staff, which people in uniform must be respected and protected under the First Geneva Convention?

Chaplains share the medics' protected status, and if captured they are not counted as prisoners of war. They may be kept only as long as fellow captives need their care.

What do the laws of war call feigning protected status, such as faking a red cross, which Geneva's Protocol I bans?

Perfidy means winning an enemy's trust by faking protection, such as a sham surrender, in order to attack. The protocol sets it apart from ruses of war, which remain lawful.

What do the Geneva Conventions call their most serious violations, such as torture and willful killing?

Grave breaches supply a legal definition of a war crime. The list also covers biological experiments and forcing a captive to serve in the armed forces of the enemy.

Which legal principle lets any country try the worst violators of the Geneva Conventions, wherever the crime took place?

Universal jurisdiction rests on the belief that some crimes are so serious all nations have a duty to act. A country holding a suspect must put the person on trial or hand them to one that will.

What do the Geneva Conventions call a neutral state that looks after a warring country's interests and prisoners?

A protecting power carries messages between enemies who no longer talk directly. Its delegates also check that the treaties are being applied, for instance by visiting prison camps.

The city hall room where the first Geneva Convention was signed is now called after which US state?

Alabama became the room's label after an 1872 arbitration panel met there to settle American claims over the CSS Alabama, a Confederate raider built in Britain.

Common Article 3 is the only provision of the 1949 Geneva Conventions that applies to which kind of conflict?

Civil wars and other conflicts fought inside one country get only this single article, which has been called a convention in miniature. A 1977 protocol later built on its protections.

Along with dams and dikes, which sites does Geneva's Protocol I guard from attack as containing dangerous forces?

Nuclear power plants join dams and dikes on the protected list. Such sites can be marked with a special sign of their own: three bright orange circles in a row.

Under Geneva's Protocol I, which parachutists may still be fired on during their descent?

Airborne troops dropping into battle are on the attack, so the protocol leaves them unprotected. Aircrew who bail out must be given a chance to surrender after they reach the ground.

Which president told the Senate that America could not ratify Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions?

Ronald Reagan called the protocol fundamentally flawed in 1987, objecting that it would give irregular forces the standing of regular armies. In the same message he asked senators to approve Protocol II.

Under which president did America finally join the Geneva Convention in 1882, after years of lobbying by a nurse?

Chester A. Arthur signed the treaty in March 1882, and the Senate ratified it the same month. His predecessor had supported the idea but was assassinated before he could act on it.

Germany denied basic necessities to captives from which country, citing its failure to sign the 1929 Geneva Convention?

The Soviet Union had never signed the 1929 treaty, and German commanders used that as grounds to deny its captives the necessities of life. Japan had signed the same text but never ratified it.

In which city's federal archives is the original 1864 Geneva Convention document preserved?

Bern keeps the original, a treaty of just ten articles, in the national archives. It has gone out in the past on loan to the Red Cross museum in Geneva.

What formal title do the Geneva Conventions give to the states that have signed up to them?

High Contracting Parties promise in the very first article to respect the treaties in all circumstances. They also undertake to teach the rules to their armed forces and, where possible, to civilians.

Where must military medics wear the water-resistant red cross band required by the First Geneva Convention?

The left arm is where the armlet goes, stamped by the military authority that issued it. A captor may never take it away or stop a medic from wearing it.

When it is unclear whether a captive qualifies as a prisoner of war, who decides under the Third Geneva Convention?

A competent tribunal must rule on doubtful cases, and until it does the captive keeps the treaty's full protection. That protection runs from capture until final release and repatriation.