New Delhi, 12 August 2009
Mr Francois Stamm, Head of Regional Delegation, ICRC, New Delhi
Shri Mahesh Bhatt, Eminent Film Personality, who delivered the kind of speech we all like to hear but Ministers can never deliver,
Mr Arthur Mattli, Charge d’Affaires, Embassy of Switzerland
Dr S P Agarwal, Secretary General, Indian Red Cross Society
Mr Azmat Ulla, Head of the Regional Delegation, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, New Delhi
Distinguished participants,
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, Friends
“Even wars have limits”. These four words sum up the Four Geneva Conventions of August 12, 1949, whose 60th Anniversary we are gathered here to celebrate. Not a retirement age, Francois, what we in India call Shastyabdapurti – a landmark 60th birthday.
For millions of people around the world, the rules enshrined in these Conventions have meant, improved detention conditions, fewer indiscriminate attacks against civilians and the availability of medical care for those affected by armed conflict over the past 60 years.
While war itself is inhuman, the Geneva Conventions have offered hope for persons under occupation, captured on the battlefield, shipwrecked at sea or being transported to receive medical care during some of the most difficult times – during armed conflict.
But rules placing limits on behaviour in war have their origins well before 1949. and the human instinct to provide succour to victims is as old as humanity.
The first laws of war were proclaimed by major civilizations several millennia before our era. Many ancient texts including Chinese warrior codes, the Mahabharata, the Bible and the Koran contain rules advocating respect for those no longer taking part in hostilities and for fellow warriors. For instance, in the Code of Manu, which we may have our differences with on feminist grounds, but which has many enlightened injunctions we find the following prohibitions: “when he fights with his foes in battle, let him not strike with weapons concealed (in wood), nor with (such as are) barbed, poisoned, or the points of which are blazing with fire.” (All techniques that had been used:- warfare up to that point.) Similarly, a branch of Buddhism includes the Vimalakirti Sutra, which contains the following verse, “In times of war, give rise in yourself to the mind of compassion…”
Since you are publishing a Hindi edition of “A memory of Sohana”, let me mention that we also have an early Indian example of a “Henri Dunant”. After the battle of Anandpur in 1704 between the Mughal army and the Sikhs, Bhai Kanhaiya, went around the battlefield serving water to and tending the wounded from both sides.
The codification of international humanitarian law (IHL, or the law of armed conflict) in treaty form, was sparked by the events of another anniversary this year, that of the 150 years since Henry Dunant, a 31-year old Swiss businessman, (and it is striking how young he was when he changed the world), witnessed the aftermath of a bloody battle in Solferino (Italy), between the armies of imperial Austria and the Franco-Sardinian alliance. Around 40,000 men lay dead or wounded on the battlefield. The wounded lacked medical attention and so he organised local people to attend to the soldiers’ wounds and to feed and comfort them. On his return to Geneva he called for the creation of national relief societies to assist those wounded in war, and sowed the seed for the future Geneva Conventions.
The as we have been reminded today, the Red Cross was born in 1863 when five men, including Henry Dunant, set up the International Committee for Relief to the Wounded, later to become the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). In 1864, 12 governments adopted the first Geneva Convention, a milestone in the history of IHL, offering care to the wounded and sick on the battlefield.
This was followed by important developments in 1907 (protection of combatants wounded at sea), and in 1929 (protection of prisoners of war). On August 12, 1949 the Four Geneva Conventions were adopted, which included updates of the previous three Conventions and a new Fourth Convention protecting civilians. We also therefore celebrate today the international community’s decision 60 years ago to establish new rules on how civilians should be treated in armed conflict, as well as rules governing non-international armed conflict. In 1977 two more protocols were added and another in 2005. Without them our understanding of international law today would be very different.
The Fourth Convention in particular was one of the international community’s key responses to the horrors witnessed during the Second World War. Each of the Four Conventions is directed toward the protection of different classes of the victims of war, namely, the wounded and sick in armed forces in the field; the wounded, sick and shipwrecked among armed forces at sea; prisoners of war; and civilians.
The International Committee of the Red Cross has been instrumental in drafting the Geneva Conventions and in pushing for greater respect of these rules in armed conflict. The path Henry Dunant started led us to the Four Geneva Conventions of 1949, which, for the first time in history, constitute treaties now acceded to by the entire world’s treaty-signing States – in other worlds, they are truly universal.
When the Geneva Conventions were adopted, conflicts were more likely to take place between States. However, the last 60 years have witnessed more non-international armed conflicts than international armed conflicts, while fewer rules regulate internal armed conflict. “Common Article 3” therefore, has been invoked by the ICRC as often as any other provision of the 1949 Geneva Conventions. Access by humanitarian organisations, including but not limited to, the ICRC, to conflict areas, remains an essential element in seeking to alleviate the suffering caused by armed conflicts.
Since the 1864 Geneva Convention was open for signature, the Swiss Government has played the important role of depositary of the Conventions, and I am pleased to see their participation at this event. India was the fifth State in the world to deposit its instrument of ratification of the 1949 Conventions with the Swiss Federal Council, doing so after only Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Monaco and Chile. We are also the first country in the region to adopt specific implementing legislation for the 1949 Conventions, through the 1960 Geneva Conventions Act.
The Red Cross movement also has a long history in India. During the First World War, in 1914, there was no organization in India for relief services to the affected soldiers, except a branch of the St. John Ambulance Association and a Joint Committee of the British Red Cross. (It was for St. John’s that Mahatma Gandhi organized ambulances in South India.) A bill to constitute the Indian Red Cross Society, Independent of the British Red Cross, was adopted in March 1920, and The Indian Red Cross Society (IRCS) is a member of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. It partners with other national Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, along with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement (IFRC), and the ICRC.
The relevance of IHL in the present day international situation remains high. The nature of conflicts has changed over time. Unfortunately, the South Asian region is not an exception. We have witnessed conflicts in many different forms, including what is commonly referred to as ‘terrorism’. While the Geneva Conventions in particular and IHL in general do not provide a universal definition of terrorism, they explicitly prohibit most acts committed against civilians and civilian objects in armed conflict that would commonly be considered “terrorist” if committed in peacetime. Terrorism violates one of the most important tenets of IHL, the principle of distinction. Indeed, acts of violence directed against civilians or civilian objects in armed conflict constitute war crimes, or “grave breaches” of the Geneva Conventions.
Therefore, it is imperative for all of us to underline the significance of IHL. It is true that the lasting solution to conflicts would be possible not through mere legal reform but through certain substantive changes, which also include political and economic reforms. However, regulatory systems such as international humanitarian law mitigate suffering in situations of armed conflict, thus creating a conducive environment for establishing lasting peace. I believe that legal frameworks such as IHL are of enormous significance in shielding the victims of armed conflict from the worst effects of war. As one who had spent a large portion of my own professional life at the UN and laterally, though briefly, at the ICRC, I would like to stress that we therefore strive to ensure that the rules codified 60 years ago are respected in practice.
Thank you very much.