APPENDICES APPENDIX A THE GENEVA CONVENTION FOR THE AMELIORATION OF THE CONDITION OF THE SICK AND WOUNDED OF ARMIES IN THE FIELD CHARACTER AND PURPOSE THE treatment of the sick and wounded in time of war was first made the subject of conventional regulation in the Geneva Convention of August 22, 1864, the operation of which was subsequently extended to hostilities at sea by the additional articles of October 10, 1868, and to maritime warfare in general by the agreement in respect to the treatment of the sick and wounded in military operations at sea which was adopted by the First Peace Conference at The Hague in 1899. At the suggestion of the Federal Government of Switzerland a Conference composed of seventy-five delegates, representing thirtyseven states, assembled at Geneva on June 11, 1906, charged with a revision of the Convention of 1864. On July 6th an agreement was reached and signed in respect to the treatment of the sick and wounded in time of war on land. Nearly all states of the civilized world are now parties to the operation of these agreements, the efficiency of which as agents for the amelioration of the condition of the sick and wounded has been fully established in the great international conflicts which have taken place during the period that has elapsed since their original adoption. ' 1 The Convention of 1864 was signed at Geneva, Switzerland, August 2, 1864. It was signed by representatives of the following powers-i. e, the Swiss Confederation, Baden, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, France, Hesse, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Prussia, and Würtemberg. The ratifications of the contracting parties were exchanged at Geneva on June 22, 1865. In accordance with the invitation contained in the Ninth Article of the Convention, the following powers acceded to the Convention at various dates between 1864 and 1880. These were: Sweden Greece, Great Britain, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Würtemberg, Hesse, Bavaria, Austria, Russia, Persia, Roumania, Salvador, Montenegro, Servia. For reports and discussions in respect to the operations of the convention in time of war, see vol. iv. Revue de Droit International, p. 325; vol. xviii. Ibid. p. 545: vol. xiv. Ibid. p. 633: vol. xx. Ibid. p. 624; vol. xxi. Ibid. pp. 88, 89: vol. xxvi. Ibid. pp. 9, 25, 38, 47, 348; vol. xxix. Ibid. pp. 110, 112, 318, 320, 571, 576. For an interesting account of the origin of the Red Cross Convention, see "Actes de la Conférence de Revision, by Professor Louis Renault, of Paris (Geneva, 1906). THE CONVENTION OF 1906 The Convention of 1864 may be said to have fairly represented the best existing practice among Continental armies, in respect to the management and control of the sick and wounded, and in the immunities which were habitually accorded to the personnel of the medical and sanitary services who were charged with their care and treatment. That Convention embodied, in the form of an international agreement, the practice which had theretofore rested upon customs and usage, and derived its obligatory force from the implied consent of the states which accepted and applied them in the conduct of their military operations. With a view to accomplish this purpose, the framers of the old Convention attempted to apply the principle of neutrality to the sick and wounded, and to the personnel and matériel of the sanitary establishments which habitually accompanied the operations of armies in the field. In the new Convention much of the inexactness of expression which characterized the old undertaking has been eliminated. Descriptive words and phrases have been brought into close and exact relation with the conditions of modern war. The terms "neutral" and "neutrality," as applied to the immunity granted to those charged with the care and treatment of the sick and wounded by the Convention of 1864, have been replaced by words and clauses which define their status with the greatest accuracy. The term "neutral" is used throughout the new Convention in the sense attributed to it in statutes and treaties and in the works of text writers of standard authority, and is restricted, as will presently appear, to cases of internment and to volunteer aid societies, organized under the authority of neutral states, which tender their services to a belligerent in time of war. The terms used to describe the status of the sick and wounded, and the personnel and matériel of the sanitary establishments in which they are entertained and cared for, have a clear and unmistakable meaning; they are calculated to conduce to efficiency and certainty of execution, and it is difficult to see how they can give occasion for variance in interpretation. The privileges conferred upon volunteer aid societies by the terms of the Convention are not only extremely liberal, but are in harmony with the most advanced humanitarian views in respect to the treatment of the sick and wounded in time of war. To enable such associations to take part in relief work in the theatre of active military operations, it is necessary that they should receive the formal recognition of their own governments; the fact of such official recognition being communicated by that government to other states, either in time of peace or prior to its being employed in the theatre of active operations. While employed in the field, the personnel of such a society becomes subject to the control and supervision of the belligerent in whose service its aid is rendered. If a volunteer aid society, established and authorized by a neutral state, desires to render aid to either belligerent, it must first obtain the consent of its own government and the authorization of the belligerent whom it desires to serve. The belligerent accepting the services of a neutral aid society is required to notify the enemy that such authorization has been accorded. The details of organization of these societies, together with the preparation of regulations governing their activity in the field, and fixing their relations with the sanitary department of the army, were wisely left to the discretion of the individual powers. It is proper to observe, however, that the furnishing of relief by such associations to communities suffering in time of peace from pestilence or famine, or from the visitation of floods, fires, or earthquakes, will always constitute a proper subject for their humanitarian endeavor; and the use or display of the insignia of the Convention upon such occasions does not come within the prohibitory requirements which are embodied in Articles XXVII. and XXVIII. of the new Convention. Purpose of the Convention. It is the purpose of these conventions to ameliorate the condition of individuals of the belligerent armies who have been placed hors de combat by disease or wounds. With the projectiles or other instruments by means of which the wounds are inflicted, and with the sanitation of armies and navies, the agreements above referred to have nothing to do. These are questions pertaining to the operations of war which are regulated. in part by declarations and other international agreements, and in part by the rules and usages of war which have been generally accepted by civilized states, and are habitually applied by them in the conduct of hostilities on land and sea. The rules of the Geneva Convention, and other undertakings of like character, become operative only when individual combatants have been disabled by wounds or disease. Their effect is to confer certain privileges and immunities upon the sick and wounded, as a class, and to secure to the places in which they are collected and cared for, and to the persons who attend them, as complete an immunity from the effects of hostile operations as it is possible to accord them under the circumstances of each particular case. Of the nature and extent of the immunity to be accorded, each belligerent is to be the judge, in so far as his own operations are concerned; and in the conduct of those operations he must weigh, on the one hand, the strict necessities of the military situation, and, on the other, the imperative demands of suffering humanity and the solemn obligations of treaties entered into with a view to ameliorate the hardships of war in respect to individual combatants who by the casualty of war are no longer able to assist in its prosecution. Field of Operation. The requirements of the Convention have no operation upon the battle-field proper during the pendency of the action. This is because of the impossibility of affording protection, within the zone of fire, to individuals wearing the distinctive badge of the society; indeed, since the adoption of magazine small-arms and quick-firing guns in modern armies, the zone of fire has become so deadly that it has become practically impossible to attempt to remove the wounded from the field during the progress of the action. If the flag of the society is in view, however, as in the case of the bombardment of a fortified place, or on the battle-field itself after the action has ceased, or has shifted to another part of the field, good faith requires a belligerent to use his utmost endeavors to cause it to be respected. The opposing belligerent is under an equal obligation to see to it that the distinctive flag of the Convention is not abused, or used for an illegitimate purpose. The Convention itself is silent in respect to the dividing-line between the battle-field proper and the zone within which its terms become applicable to the sick and wounded, and to the places in which they are collected and cared for. The terms of the first article of the original instrument, however, that "ambulances and military hospitals shall be acknowledged to be neuter," have given occasion for an interpretation of the agreement in this regard which has been generally acted upon by the civilized powers, and which may be stated as follows: At such a distance in rear of the firingline and its successive supporting formations as it is possible to find reasonable shelter from the fire of the enemy, what are called the first dressing-stations are established, where the wounded are collected with a view to receiving surgical attention before they are transported to the "ambulances and military hospitals" which are neutralized by the express terms of the Convention. In front of the line thus rudely determined the Convention is inoperative; behind it, where the ambulances and field hospitals have been established, its terms are fully applicable to, and obligatory upon, both belligerents. In rear of the line so established the immunity is, or should be, complete; in front of it the wounded are protected during the continuance of the action, not by the terms of the Geneva Convention, but by the rules of international law. Those rules forbid, first, the use of instruments of war which inflict wounds of needless or unnecessary cruelty; and, secondly, the infliction of any injury whatever upon a person already hors de combat. They convert the right to kill into the duty to save, the power to inflict injury into an obligation to relieve suffering; and require that each belligerent shall accord to the wounded of the enemy the same measure of relief that is extended to his own. CONVENTION FOR THE AMELIORATION OF THE CONDITION OF THE WOUNDED OF THE ARMIES IN THE FIELD Signed at Geneva July 6, 1906. Ratification advised by the Senate December 19, 1906. Ratified by the President of the United States January 2, 1907. Ratification deposited with the Government of the Swiss Confederation February 9, 1907. Proclaimed by the President August 3, 1907. CHAPTER I-THE SICK AND WOUNded Article I. Officers, soldiers, and other persons officially attached to armies, who are sick or wounded, shall be respected and cared for, without distinction of nationality, by the belligerent in whose power they are. A belligerent, however, when compelled to leave his wounded in the hands of his adversary, shall leave with them, so far as military conditions permit, a portion of the personnel and matériel of his sanitary service to assist in caring for them. Art. II. Subject to the care that must be taken of them under the preceding article, the sick and wounded of an army who fall into the power of the other belligerent become prisoners of war, and the general rules of international law in respect to prisoners become applicable to them. The belligerents remain free, however, to mutually agree upon such clauses, by way of exception or favor, in relation to the wounded or sick as they may deem proper. They shall especially have authority to agree |