Consigned To History
Protocol 1
Additional to the Geneva Conventions, 1977
PART IV: CIVILIAN POPULATION
Chapter I: Basic Rule and Field of Application
Article 48: Basic Rule
In order to ensure respect for and protection of the civilian population and civilian objects, the Parties to the conflict shall at all times distinguish between the civilian population and combatants and between civilian objects and military objectives and accordingly shall direct their operations only against military objectives.
Chapter II: Civilians and Civilian Population
Article 50: Definition of Civilians and Civilian Population
The presence within the civilian population of individuals who do not come within the definition of civilians does not deprive the population of its civilian character.
Article 51: Protection of the Civilian Population
- The civilian population and individual civilians shall enjoy general protection against dangers arising from military operations. To give effect to this protection, the following rules, which are additional to other applicable rules of international law, shall be observed in all circumstances.
- 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.
- Indiscriminate attacks are prohibited. Indiscriminate attacks are:
- those which are not directed at a specific military objective;
- those which employ a method or means of combat which cannot be directed at a specific military objective; or
- those which employ a method or means of combat the effects of which cannot be limited as required by this Protocol; and consequently, in each such case, are of a nature to strike military objectives and civilians or civilian objects without distinction.
- Among others, the following types of attacks are to be considered as indiscriminate: an attack which may be expected to cause incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians, damage to civilian objects, or a combination thereof, which would be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated.
The full protocols can be found here.
“To build may have to be the slow and laborious task of years. To destroy can be the thoughtless act of a single day.”
Sir Winston Churchill
British politician (1874 - 1965)
Thanks for this post. I will return to ‘normal’ blogging soon.
Best,
Sophia
I typed stuff in yesterday and forgot to fill that stupid anti-spam thing in before submitting and it all disppeared. Grrrrr, gnash, growl! Anyway it was as usual totally profound and insightful.
How tragic, I feel for you I really do.
(been there done that, and its often the most inspired comments)
Can you forward a copy of this to the Israeli embassy,they appear to have lost theirs!
Article 85.-Repression of breaches of this Protocol
3. In addition to the grave breaches defined in Article 11, the following acts shall be regarded as grave breaches of this Protocol, when committed wilfully, in violation of the relevant provisions of this Protocol, and causing death or serious injury to body or health:
(a) Making the civilian population or individual civilians the object of attack;
(b) 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, as defined in Article 57, paragraph 2 (a) (iii);
Link
BEAJ;
Have a re-read of paragraph b) of what you published and you will see that Israel is clearly in violation of such.
But of course, you seem only able to apply your logic and international laws to Jews, never to non-Jews.
I guess Israel should just allow HZB to fire at them because they found a loop hole in the Geneva conventions?
These laws didn’t take into account the potential inhumanity of the Islamic culture.
Who would put babies at risk like these subhuman Arabs? And the assmonkeys who live in Lebanon, can’t figure it out.
Anyone who doesn’t see this is a complete retard.
AJ,
If you ever post such vulgar racist drivel on my blog again I will simply delete it.
On this occasion I am going to leave it simply so other passing bloggers can see what a poisonous-minded bigot you really are. If you ever had any viable argument to propose you undermined it with your vulgarity.
It seems to me that HEzbolla is in violation ov every one of these conventions yet somehow I dont see that as being the reason you posted this.
Kevin,
I deliberately left this post open-ended however I have yet to receive a fatuous comment from a member of Hezbollah. [sigh] I guess they have other things to do right now.
Has no-one read this paragraph of Article 50 of the Convention?
Not sure that article is particularly relevant in this conflict as it refers to moving civilians into regions of conflict to use as shields. Nobody is doing that, the civilians already live there. Its military targets which are moving into civilian areas.