PREAMBLE. The High Contracting
Parties,
Proclaiming their earnest wish to see peace prevail among peoples,
Recalling that every State has the duty, in conformity with the Charter
of the United Nations, to refrain in its international relations from the
threat or use of force against the sovereignty, territorial integrity or
political independence of any State, or in any other manner inconsistent
with the purposes of the United Nations,
Believing it necessary nevertheless to reaffirm and develop the
provisions protecting the victims of armed conflicts and to supplement
measures intended to reinforce their application,
Expressing their conviction that nothing in this Protocol or in the
Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 can be construed as legitimising or
authorising any act of aggression or any other use of force inconsistent
with the Charter of the United Nations,
Reaffirming further that the provisions of the Geneva Conventions of 12
August 1949 and of this Protocol must be fully applied in all circumstances
to all persons who are protected by those instruments, without any adverse
distinction based on the nature or origin of the armed conflict or on the
causes espoused by or attributed to the Parties to the conflict,
Have agreed on the following:
PART I. GENERAL PROVISIONS
Art 1. General principles and
scope of application
1. The High Contracting Parties undertake to respect and to ensure
respect for this Protocol in all circumstances.
2. In cases not covered by this Protocol or by other international
agreements, civilians and combatants remain under the protection and
authority of the principles of international law derived from
established custom, from the principles of humanity and from dictates of
public conscience.
3. This Protocol, which supplements the Geneva Conventions of 12
August 1949 for the protection of war victims, shall apply in the
situations referred to in Article 2 common to those Conventions.
4. The situations referred to in the preceding paragraph include
armed conflicts which peoples are fighting against colonial domination
and alien occupation and against racist regimes in the exercise of their
right of self-determination, as enshrined in the Charter of the United
Nations and the Declaration on Principles of International Law
concerning Friendly Relations and Co-operation among States in
accordance with the Charter of the United Nations.
Art 2. Definitions
For the purposes of this Protocol:
(a) "First Convention", "Second Convention", "Third Convention" and
"Fourth Convention" mean, respectively, the Geneva Convention for the
Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armed Forces in
the Field of 12 August 1949; the Geneva Convention for the Amelioration
of the Condition of Wounded, Sick and Ship-wrecked Members of Armed
Forces at Sea of 12 August 1949; the Geneva Convention relative to the
Treatment of Prisoners of War of 12 August 1949; the Geneva Convention
relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 12
August 1949; "the Conventions" means the four Geneva Conventions of 12
August 1949 for the protection of war victims;
(b) "Rules of international law applicable in armed conflict" means
the rules applicable in armed conflict set forth in international
agreements to which the Parties to the conflict are Parties and the
generally recognised principles and rules of international law which are
applicable to armed conflict;
(c) "Protecting Power" means a neutral or other State not a Party to
the conflict which has been designated by a Party to the conflict and
accepted by the adverse Party and has agreed to carry out the functions
assigned to a Protecting Power under the Conventions and this Protocol;
(d) "Substitute" means an organisation acting in place of a
Protecting Power in accordance with Article 5.
Art 3. Beginning and end of
application
Without prejudice to the provisions which are applicable at all times:
(a) the Conventions and this Protocol shall apply from the beginning
of any situation referred to in Article 1 of this Protocol.
(b) the application of the Conventions and of this Protocol shall
cease, in the territory of Parties to the conflict, on the general close
of military operations and, in the case of occupied territories, on the
termination of the occupation, except, in either circumstance, for those
persons whose final release, repatriation or re-establishment takes
place thereafter. These persons shall continue to benefit from the
relevant provisions of the Conventions and of this Protocol until their
final release repatriation or re-establishment.
Art 4. Legal status of the Parties
to the conflict
The application of the Conventions and of this Protocol, as well as the
conclusion of the agreements provided for therein, shall not affect the
legal status of the Parties to the conflict. Neither the occupation of a
territory nor the application of the Conventions and this Protocol shall
affect the legal status of the territory in question.
Art 5. Appointment of Protecting
Powers and of their substitute
1. It is the duty of the Parties to a conflict from the beginning of
that conflict to secure the supervision and implementation of the
Conventions and of this Protocol by the application of the system of
Protecting Powers, including inter alia the designation and acceptance
of those Powers, in accordance with the following paragraphs. Protecting
Powers shall have the duty of safeguarding the interests of the Parties
to the conflict.
2. From the beginning of a situation referred to in Article 1, each
Party to the conflict shall without delay designate a Protecting Power
for the purpose of applying the Conventions and this Protocol and shall,
likewise without delay and for the same purpose, permit the activities
or a Protecting Power which has been accepted by it as such after
designation by the adverse Party.
3. If a Protecting Power has not been designated or accepted from the
beginning of a situation referred to in Article 1, the International
Committee of the Red Cross, without prejudice to the right of any other
impartial humanitarian organisation to do likewise, shall offer its good
offices to the Parties to the conflict with a view to the designation
without delay of a Protecting Power to which the Parties to the conflict
consent. For that purpose it may inter alia ask each Party to provide it
with a list of at least five States which that Party considers
acceptable to act as Protecting Power on its behalf in relation to an
adverse Party and ask each adverse Party to provide a list or at least
five States which it would accept as the Protecting Power of the first
Party; these lists shall be communicated to the Committee within two
weeks after the receipt or the request; it shall compare them and seek
the agreement of any proposed State named on both lists.
4. If, despite the foregoing, there is no Protecting Power, the
Parties to the conflict shall accept without delay an offer which may be
made by the International Committee of the Red Cross or by any other
organisation which offers all guarantees of impartiality and efficacy,
after due consultations with the said Parties and taking into account
the result of these consultations, to act as a substitute. The
functioning of such a substitute is subject to the consent of the
Parties to the conflict; every effort shall be made by the Parties to
the conflict to facilitate the operations of the substitute in the
performance of its tasks under the Conventions and this Protocol.
5. In accordance with Article 4, the designation and acceptance of
Protecting Powers for the purpose of applying the Conventions and this
Protocol shall not affect the legal status of the Parties to the
conflict or of any territory, including occupied territory.
6. The maintenance of diplomatic relations between Parties to the
conflict or the entrusting of the protection of a Party's interests and
those of its nationals to a third State in accordance with the rules of
international law relating to diplomatic relations is no obstacle to the
designation of Protecting Powers for the purpose of applying the
Conventions and this Protocol.
7. Any subsequent mention in this Protocol of a Protecting Power
includes also a substitute.
Art 6. Qualified persons
1. The High Contracting Parties shall, also in peacetime, endeavour,
with the assistance of the national Red Cross (Red Crescent, Red Lion
and Sun) Societies, to train qualified personnel to facilitate the
application of the Conventions and of this Protocol, and in particular
the activities of the Protecting Powers.
2. The recruitment and training of such personnel are within domestic
jurisdiction.
3. The International Committee of the Red Cross shall hold at the
disposal of the High Contracting Parties the lists of persons so trained
which the High Contracting Parties may have established and may have
transmitted to it for that purpose.
4. The conditions governing the employment of such personnel outside
the national territory shall, in each case, be the subject of special
agreements between the Parties concerned.
Article 7 - Meetings
The depository of this Protocol shall convene a meeting of the High
Contracting Parties, at the request of one or more of the said Parties and
upon, the approval of the majority of the said Parties, to consider general
problems concerning the application of the Conventions and of the Protocol.
