Geneva Conventions : 75 years
August 12 marked 75 years since the adoption of the Geneva Conventions in 1949.
- Geneva Conventions are a set of four treaties which include more than 400 articles, setting out detailed rules for the treatment of prisoners, protecting hospitals and medical staff, allowing humanitarian aid and prohibiting torture, rape and sexual violence.
- It was formalised in 1949 by the United Nations.
- There are three additional protocols, the first two of which were formalised in 1977 and the third in 2005.
- The focus of the Conventions is the treatment of non-combatants and prisoners of war and not the use of conventional or biological and chemical weapons, the use of which is governed respectively by The Hague Conventions and the Geneva Protocol.
