The minimum ground · Explained
Every country on earth has signed the Geneva Conventions. Few people have read them. Here is what they actually say, in plain language, with the words of the treaties themselves.
Four treaties signed on 12 August 1949, each protecting one group of people in war: wounded and sick soldiers on land (I), the wounded, sick and shipwrecked at sea (II), prisoners of war (III) and civilians, including people living under occupation (IV).
Three Additional Protocols followed. The two of 1977 strengthen the rules for wars between states (Protocol I) and inside states (Protocol II). The third, from 2005, created a new emblem, the red crystal.
Every state in the world. According to the ICRC, 196 states are party to the 1949 Conventions. The Protocols are not quite universal: 175 states have joined Protocol I and 170 Protocol II.
Among those outside Protocol I are the United States, Iran and Pakistan, which signed it but never ratified it, and Israel, India and Türkiye, which never signed it.
Source: ICRC, states party to IHL treaties, as of 16 July 2026
Yes. Article 3, repeated word for word in all four Conventions, sets a floor of humane treatment for any armed conflict “not of an international character”, and it binds every party to the fighting, including armed groups. Protocol II adds more detailed rules for civil wars in which organised armed groups control territory. Riots and isolated acts of violence are not covered.
“In the case of armed conflict not of an international character occurring in the territory of one of the High Contracting Parties, each Party to the conflict shall be bound to apply, as a minimum, the following provisions”
Anyone who is not, or is no longer, fighting. That means wounded, sick and shipwrecked soldiers of any side; prisoners of war; and civilians who find themselves in the hands of a party to the conflict or an occupying power. Soldiers who have laid down their arms are protected too.
“Persons taking no active part in the hostilities, including members of armed forces who have laid down their arms and those placed hors de combat by sickness, wounds, detention, or any other cause, shall in all circumstances be treated humanely”
Almost always. A hospital loses its protection only if it is used, outside its medical work, to commit acts harmful to the enemy. Even then, the attacker must first give a warning, with a reasonable deadline where appropriate, and the warning must have been ignored. Treating wounded soldiers, or keeping weapons taken from them, never counts as a harmful act.
“The protection to which civilian hospitals are entitled shall not cease unless they are used to commit, outside their humanitarian duties, acts harmful to the enemy. Protection may, however, cease only after due warning has been given, naming, in all appropriate cases, a reasonable time limit and after such warning has remained unheeded.”
No. Under Protocol I, the parties must always tell civilians apart from combatants and may attack only military objectives. Civilians lose this protection only for as long as they take a direct part in the fighting. An attack on a legitimate target is also forbidden if the expected harm to civilians would be excessive compared with the military advantage expected.
“The civilian population as such, as well as individual civilians, shall not be the object of attack. Acts or threats of violence the primary purpose of which is to spread terror among the civilian population are prohibited.”
Never, for anyone, for any reason. The ban appears in Common Article 3, in the rules for prisoners of war and for civilians, and in both 1977 Protocols. Torture is one of the “grave breaches” that every state must prosecute.
“No physical or mental torture, nor any other form of coercion, may be inflicted on prisoners of war to secure from them information of any kind whatever.”
No. Each state promises to respect the Conventions “in all circumstances”, not only while the enemy does. Reprisals against protected people, whether the wounded, prisoners or civilians, are expressly banned. One side’s violations never release the other from its duties.
“The High Contracting Parties undertake to respect and to ensure respect for the present Convention in all circumstances.”
First of all, states. Each one must make grave breaches a crime, search for suspects and put them on trial, whatever their nationality, or hand them over to a state that will. Since 2002 the International Criminal Court can also try war crimes; its founding treaty, the Rome Statute, was adopted on 17 July 1998.
The ICRC is not a court. It visits prisoners, reminds the parties of their obligations and raises violations with them in confidence, which is what allows it to keep working on every side of a front line.
“Each High Contracting Party shall be under the obligation to search for persons alleged to have committed, or to have ordered to be committed, such grave breaches, and shall bring such persons, regardless of their nationality, before its own courts.”
No, and that is deliberate. Whether a war may be started at all is a question for the UN Charter. The Geneva Conventions only govern how any war is fought, and they bind every side equally, whoever started it and whatever the cause. If the rules first required agreement on who the aggressor was, every side would claim to be the victim and the rules would never apply.
“the present Convention shall apply to all cases of declared war or of any other armed conflict which may arise between two or more of the High Contracting Parties, even if the state of war is not recognized by one of them.”
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