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Article 1 - Respect for the Convention

from Part I - General Provisions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 August 2021

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International Committee of the Red Cross
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Summary

In the very first article of each of the four 1949 Geneva Conventions, the HighContracting Parties ‘undertake to respect and to ensure respect for the presentConvention in all circumstances’. This clause attests to the special characterof the Conventions, a great many of whose rules give expression to ‘elementaryconsiderations of humanity’. The High Contracting Parties therefore deemed itappropriate to explicitly reiterate the general principle that the Conventionsare binding upon its Parties, which have ‘to respect’ them. Moreover, the HighContracting Parties commit themselves to do everything reasonably in their power‘to ensure respect’ for the Conventions. The phrase ‘to respect and to ensurerespect’ applies first and foremost to the High Contracting Parties themselves,their armed forces, other persons and groups acting on their behalf, and theirpopulations as a whole.

Type
Chapter
Information
Commentary on the Third Geneva Convention
Convention (III) relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War
 , pp. 47 - 80
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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