First Geneva Convention

, co-founder of the Red Cross The 1864 Geneva Convention was instituted during a critical period in European political and military history. The American Civil War had been raging elsewhere since 1861, and would ultimately claim between 750,000 and 900,000 lives. Between the fall of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 and the rise of his nephew in the Italian campaign of 1859, the powers had maintained peace in western Europe. Yet, with the 1853–1856 conflict in the Crimea, war had returned to Europe, and while those troubles were "in a distant and inaccessible region," the war in northern Italy was "so accessible from all parts of western Europe that it instantly filled with curious observers;" while the bloodshed was not excessive the sight of it was unfamiliar and shocking. The subsequent suffering of 40,000 wounded soldiers left on the field due to lack of facilities, personnel, and truces to give them medical aid moved Dunant into action. He urged the calling together of an international conference and soon co-founded with the Swiss lawyer Gustave Moynier, the International Committee of the Red Cross in 1863. To ensure that its mission was widely accepted, it required a body of rules to govern its activities and those of the involved belligerent parties. Only one year later, the Swiss government invited the governments of all European countries and the United States, Brazil, and Mexico to attend an official diplomatic conference. Sixteen countries sent a total of twenty-six delegates to Geneva. The meeting was presided over by General Guillaume Henri Dufour. The conference occurred in the Alabama room at Geneva's Hotel de Ville (city hall) on 22 August 1864. The conference adopted the first Geneva Convention "for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded in Armies in the Field". Representatives of 12 states signed the convention: • • • • • • • • • • • • The United Kingdom of Norway and Sweden signed in December. The United Kingdom signed a year later in 1865. The Ottoman government ratified this treaty on 5 July 1865. The Grand Duchy of Hesse, the Kingdom of Bavaria and Austria signed in 1866 following the conclusion of the Austro-Prussian War. The United States of America signed in 1882. In the past it has been loaned to the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum in Geneva. ==Application ==

The convention "derived its obligatory force from the implied consent of the states which accepted and applied them in the conduct of their military operations." • the immunity from capture and destruction of all establishments for the treatment of wounded and sick soldiers, • the impartial reception and treatment of all combatants, • the protection of civilians providing aid to the wounded, and • the recognition of the Red Cross symbol as a means of identifying persons and equipment covered by the agreement. ==Summary of provisions and revisions==

The original ten articles of the 1864 treaty have been expanded to the current 64 articles. This lengthy treaty protects soldiers that are hors de combat (out of the battle due to sickness or injury), as well as medical and religious personnel, and civilians in the zone of battle. Among its principal provisions: • Article 12 mandates that wounded and sick soldiers who are out of the battle should be humanely treated, and in particular should not be killed, injured, tortured, or subjected to biological experimentation. This article is the keystone of the treaty, and defines the principles from which most of the treaty is derived, However, as Jean S. Pictet, Director of the International Committee of the Red Cross, noted in 1951, "the law, however, always lags behind charity; it is tardy in conforming with life's realities and the needs of humankind", as such it is the duty of the Red Cross "to assist in the widening the scope of law, on the assumption that…law will retain its value", principally through the revision and expansion of these basic principles of the original Geneva Convention. and the commentary. There are currently 196 countries party to the 1949 Geneva Conventions, including this first treaty but also including the other three. ==See also==