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The Conference of High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention of 17 December 2014 and the duty to ensure respect for international humanitarian law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 October 2015

Matthias Lanz ,
Emilie Max  and
Oliver Hoehne
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Abstract

While international humanitarian law envisages the possibility of holding formal thematic discussions, only United Nations General Assembly resolutions prompted the depositary of the Geneva Conventions to consult the High Contracting Parties on the opportuneness of conflict-specific conferences. Recalling the precedents of 1999 and 2001 – convened on the basis of the support expressed by the States Parties during related consultations – this article focuses on the Conference of High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention of 17 December 2014, which is likewise related to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. The result of the conference consists of a declaration reflecting the willingness of the States Parties to further implement Article 1 common to the four Geneva Conventions.

Keywords

common Article 1depositaryConference of High Contracting PartiesIsraelPalestineOccupied Palestinian Territoryprotection of civilians
Type
Reports and Documents
Information
International Review of the Red Cross , Volume 96 , Issue 895-896: Generating respect for the law , December 2014 , pp. 1115 - 1133
Copyright
Copyright © icrc 2015 

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References

1 Jean Pictet (ed.), Commentary on the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, Vol. 4: Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Times of War, ICRC, Geneva, 1958, p. 17.

2 The text of the final declaration in English and French is available in the Annex to this piece.

3 The government of Switzerland is the depositary for seventy-nine international treaties, including the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocols of 1977 and 2005. For more information, see: www.eda.admin.ch/depositary (all internet references were accessed in August 2015).

4 Report of the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, UN Doc. A/HRC/12/48, 25 September 2009.

5 Emphasis added.

6 See Yves Sandoz, Christophe Swinarski and Bruno Zimmermann (eds), Commentary on the Additional Protocols of 8 June 1977 to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, ICRC, Geneva, 1987, p. 104.

7 “Resolution 1 of the 26th International Conference of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent (Geneva, Switzerland, 3–7 December 1995)”, International Review of the Red Cross, Vol. 36, No. 310, 1996, pp. 58–60Google Scholar (emphasis added). The recommendation can be traced back to the International Conference for the Protection of War Victims that took place in Geneva from 30 August to 1 September 1993. In the final declaration, the participants in the conference called upon the Swiss government to convene an open-ended intergovernmental group of experts to study practical means of promoting full respect for and compliance with IHL: see “Final Declaration of the International Conference”, International Review of the Red Cross, Vol. 33, No. 296, 1993, pp. 377–381CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Accordingly, the Group of Experts for the Protection of War Victims subsequently recommended the convening of “periodical meetings”: see “Meeting of the Intergovernmental Group of Experts for the Protection of War Victims: Recommendations”, International Review of the Red Cross, Vol. 35, No. 304, 1995, pp. 37–38Google Scholar.

8 See Caflisch, Lucius, “First Periodical Meeting on International Humanitarian Law”, International Review of the Red Cross, Vol. 38, No. 323, 1998, pp. 366–373CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, “Première réunion périodique sur le droit international humanitaire”, 15 January 1998, available at: www.admin.ch/cp/f/1998Jan15.162726.8806@idz.bfi.admin.ch.html.

9 Res. 31IC/11/R1, 28 November–1 December 2011, op. paras 5–8, available at: http://rcrcconference.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2015/03/R1_Strengthening_IHL_EN.pdf.

10 For more details and the current state of the process, see: www.eda.admin.ch/ihl-compliance and www.icrc.org/en/document/strengthening-compliance-international-humanitarian-law-ihl-work-icrc-and-swiss-government.

11 ICRC in conjunction with the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, “Strengthening Compliance with International Humanitarian Law − Concluding Report”, advance unedited version, June 2015, pp. 20–22, available at: www.eda.admin.ch/content/dam/eda/mehrsprachig/documents/topics/aussenpolitik/voelkerrecht/Concluding-Report-Strengthening-Compliance-IHL_June%20%202015.pdf. The purpose of a new meeting of States on IHL would be to foster dialogue and cooperation among States on ways of strengthening respect for this body of law and to promote awareness of IHL at the international and domestic levels. It would allow States to examine practical experiences as well as challenges in the application of IHL, to exchange best practices, to flag capacity-building needs and to foster international cooperation in addressing such needs.

12 For more information on the 32nd International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, see: http://rcrcconference.org.

13 UNGA Res. ES-10/3, 15 July 1997, to ES-10/9, 20 December 2001.

14 For a detailed historical account of the multilateral process, on which the following overview is based, and the text of the declaration of 5 December 2001, see Fux, Pierre-Yves and Zambelli, Mirko, “Mise en oeuvre de la Quatrième Convention de Genève dans les territoires palestiniens occupés: Historique d'un processus multilateral (1997–2001)”, International Review of the Red Cross, Vol. 84, No. 847, 2002, pp. 661 ffGoogle Scholar.

15 UNGA Res. ES-10/3, 15 July 1997, to ES-10/6, 9 February 1999.

16 Now, notably, renamed the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation .

17 UNGA Res. ES-10/7, 20 October 2000.

18 For the text of the declaration in English and French, see P.-Y. Fux and M. Zambelli, above note 14, pp. 683 ff.

19 See Report of the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, above note 4.

20 UNGA Res. 64/10, 5 November 2009, op. para. 5 (emphasis in original).

21 African Group, Asia-Pacific Group, Eastern European Group, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC) and Western European and Others Group (WEOG).

22 UNGA Res. 64/254, 26 February 2010, op. para. 4.

23 Switzerland regularly informed the Secretary-General throughout this original process, notably by sending him two letters in November 2009 and July 2010 respectively. See Report of the Secretary-General in follow-up to the report of the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, UN Doc. A/64/651, 4 February 2010, Annex III; Report of the Secretary-General in second follow-up to the report of the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, UN Doc. A/64/890, 11 August 2010, Annex III.

24 The State of Palestine had acceded to the Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocol I on 2 April 2014. It subsequently adhered to Additional Protocols II and III on 4 January 2015. See: www.eda.admin.ch/eda/fr/dfae/politique-exterieure/droit-international-public/traites-internationaux/depositaire/protection-des-victimes-de-la-guerre.html.

25 The notification is available at: www.eda.admin.ch/content/dam/eda/fr/documents/topics/aussenpolitik/voelkerrecht/Geneve/140722-GENEVE_e.pdf.

26 UNHRC Res. S-21/1, 21 July 2014.

27 Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the Implementation of Resolution S-21/1 on Ensuring Respect for International Law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, UN Doc. A/HRC/27/76, 29 September 2014, para. 3–6.

28 The remaining High Contracting Parties were informed of the consultation process through the respective presidencies of the UN Regional Groups.

29 The depositary consulted the ICRC, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

30 Some publicly communicated their position. For example, the Non-Aligned Movement's Committee on Palestine issued a declaration through the Islamic Republic of Iran, on 4 August 2014, which “called on Switzerland, in its capacity as depositary, to undertake the necessary efforts for the timely convening of such an important conference”. The full declaration is available at: http://iranembassy.ch/en/496.

31 For Israel's position towards the end of the process, see Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “The Conference of Fourth Geneva Convention Signatories”, 11 December 2014, available at: http://mfa.gov.il/MFA/PressRoom/2014/Pages/The-Conference-of-Fourth-Geneva-Convention-Signatories-11-December-2014.aspx; Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “Conference of High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions”, 17 December 2014, available at: http://mfa.gov.il/MFA/PressRoom/2014/Pages/Conference-of-high-contracting-parties-to-the-Geneva-Conventions-Israel-reaction-17-Dec-2014.aspx.

32 On 16 March 2015, the Human Rights Council consensually decided to postpone the report by the Commission of Inquiry to June 2015. A short oral update was accordingly given on 23 March 2015.

33 The draft modalities provided a non-exhaustive list of such pre-established groups.

34 “Notification to Governments of the States Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War”, 10 December 2014, available at: www.eda.admin.ch/content/dam/eda/fr/documents/topics/aussenpolitik/voelkerrecht/Geneve/141210-GENEVE-Mission_EN.pdf (emphasis in original).

35 The full list of participating States is available at: www.eda.admin.ch/content/dam/EDA-Event/GVA%20Convention/CHCP-List%20of%20Participants.pdf.

36 See above note 31.

37 Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada, “Canada Strongly Opposes Decision to Convene Anti-Israel Conference in Geneva”, 16 December 2014, available at: www.international.gc.ca/media/aff/news-communiques/2014/12/16b.aspx?lang=eng.

38 Permanent Mission of the United States of America to the United Nations and Other International Organizations in Geneva, “U.S. Statement on the Conference of High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention”, 17 December 2014, available at: https://geneva.usmission.gov/2014/12/17/u-s-statement-on-the-conference-of-high-contracting-parties-to-the-fourth-geneva-convention/.

39 African Union, European Union, ICRC, International Federation of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent, League of Arab States, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, OIC and UNRWA.

40 The depositary held a short press conference immediately afterwards and issued a press release: see Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, “Switzerland Hosts Conference of High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention”, 17 December 2014, available at: www.eda.admin.ch/countries/blueprint/en/home/aktuell/news.html/content/eda/en/meta/news/2014/12/17/55724.

41 Iran spoke on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement, Italy on behalf of the European Union, Ecuador on behalf of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), Saudi Arabia on behalf of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, the United Arab Emirates on behalf of the Arab Group, and Namibia on behalf of the African Group.

42 The conference's records are not publicly accessible, except for the list of participating High Contracting Parties, the declaration (in French, English, Spanish, Chinese, Arabic and Russian), the modalities, and the programme (available at: www.eda.admin.ch/eda/en/fdfa/etc/fourth-geneva-convention.html). Some of the participating States and entities have published their statements on an individual basis.

43 Letter dated 29 December 2014 from the Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the UN, addressed to the Secretary-General, UN Doc. A/69/711-S/2015/1, 9 January 2015.