VI.

Common Article 3 to the Geneva Conventions

Article 3 applies to all four Geneva Conventions and is often referred to as Common Article 3. Article 3 prohibits “at any time and in any place whatsoever” the use of specific acts on persons taking no active part in hostilities, including members of armed forces who have laid down their arms, or who have become sick, wounded, or detained. The acts are violence to life and person, including murder, mutilation, cruel treatment, and torture, and outrages upon personal dignity, such as humiliating and degrading treatment. Protected persons must be treated humanely at all times.

By its terms, Article 3 explicitly protects persons during an internal armed conflict, such as a civil war. However, it is now well established that Common Article 3 also applies to international conflicts. The International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda all consider the protections of Common Article 3 to apply to international conflicts. Article 3 is also considered to be part of customary international law. This means that countries are bound to follow the protections of Common Article 3, unless a country has expressly disapproved of those protections during their development.

A.

Countries Belonging to the Conventions

As of 2005, 192 countries had ratified (thus becoming parties to) all four of the Geneva Conventions. Additional Protocol I had been ratified by 161 states, and 156 countries had ratified Additional Protocol II. Nearly every country has ratified the Geneva Conventions, so they are now considered customary international law. The United States is a party to the four Geneva Conventions, but has not ratified the two Additional Protocols. The United States refuses to ratify Protocol I because it claims the protocol will legitimize groups involved in wars of national liberation. Although the United States has not ratified Protocol I, it has indicated that most of its provisions are incorporated into customary international law. The United States also decided not to ratify Protocol II, fearing that it might enhance the status of rebels, even though there was little objection by the U.S. military to ratification of this protocol. Without the Additional Protocols, recent conflicts in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sierra Leone, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo might not have been covered by humanitarian law.