Geneva Convention

The Geneva Conventions are a series of four international treaties (1949) and their three additional protocols that form the core of international humanitarian law. They establish legal standards for humanitarian treatment of non-combatants in war and protect people who are not or are no longer actively taking part in hostilities. This category includes not only civilians and civilian populations but also former combatants, such as prisoners of war and fighters rendered hors de combat due to injury, illness, shipwreck or those who have surrendered. The four 1949 Geneva Conventions, adopted in response to the inhumanities of World War II, updated and added to previous Geneva Conventions. The 1949 Geneva Conventions address the treatment of sick and wounded soldiers in the field, wounded, sick and shipwrecked soldiers at sea, prisoners of war, and civilians in time of war. In 1977, these rules were updated by two Additional Protocols, the first concerning international armed conflicts and the second, non-international armed conflicts.