A House with Two Rooms - The Advocates for Human Rights

Conventions I-IV that apply only in cases of international armed conflicts).
Those persons who take no active part in the fighting, including any combatants who have
surrendered their weapons and those who have been taken out of the fighting by sickness, wounds,
or capture, must be treated humanely at all times without discrimination on the basis of race, color,
religion, sex, birth, wealth, or similar criteria. 174 Common Article 3 states that this requirement
forbids the following acts: “(a) violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds,
mutilation, cruel treatment and torture; (b) taking of hostages; (c) outrages against personal dignity,
in particular humiliating and degrading treatment; (d) the passing of sentences and the carrying out
of executions without previous judgment pronounced by a regularly constituted court, affording all
the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples.” 175 All wounded
and sick also must be collected and cared for, although how humanitarian assistance is to be provided
is not explained in practical terms. 176 Most noticeably, there are no provisions in Common Article 3
regarding the treatment of POWs. 177
Application of Common Article 3 has certain limitations. First, armed opposition groups cannot
be parties to the Convention. Thus, these groups are not bound by Common Article 3; although,
as a practical matter, it might be helpful both internally and externally for these groups to comply. 178
Second, sovereignty concerns render states extremely reluctant to recognize an opposition party in
any capacity. 179 Common Article 3 therefore is rarely invoked. Nonetheless, all parties regardless
of their status are called upon to follow and make special formal agreements concerning the full
application of the Conventions I-IV, and these types of agreements have been reached in various
conflicts in cooperation with the International Committee for the Red Cross. 180
In addition, the Geneva Conventions require States Parties to penalize and prosecute “grave
breaches.” The four Geneva Conventions plus Additional Protocol I provide definitions of these
grave breaches. Under Geneva Convention IV, grave breaches include: “wilful killing, torture or
inhuman treatment, including biological experiments, wilfully causing great suffering or serious
injury to body or health, unlawful deportation or transfer or unlawful confinement of a protected
person, compelling a protected person to serve in the forces of a hostile Power, or wilfully depriving
a protected person of the rights of fair and regular trial prescribed in the present Convention,
taking of hostages and extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by
military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly.” 181 Additional Protocol I defines grave
breaches as, “[a]ny wilful act or omission which seriously endangers the physical or mental health
or integrity of any person who is in the power of a Party other than the one on which he depends
and which either violates any of the prohibitions in paragraphs 1 and 2 or fails to comply with the
requirements of paragraph 3 shall be a grave breach of this Protocol,” as well as, inter alia, “making
the civilian population or individual civilians the object of attack” and “launching an indiscriminate
attack affecting the civilian population or civilian objects in the knowledge that such attack will
cause excessive loss of life, injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects” which, when committed
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