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A little-known Convention on the law of war

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 January 2010

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Abstract

In its January 1973 issue, International Review published a short article on a humanitarian venture launched in Latin America over 150 years ago, when a treaty on rules of war was signed on 26 November 1820 by representatives of the Governments of Colombia and Spain, and led to the historic accolade between Simdn Bolivar and Pablo Morillo at Santa Ana the following day.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Review of the Red Cross (1961 - 1997) , Volume 14 , Issue 160 , July 1974 , pp. 344 - 354
Copyright
Copyright © International Committee of the Red Cross 1974

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References

page 344 note 1 Paris, Tome XXI, 1914.

page 347 note 1 The Colombian Commissioners had envisaged the application of prisoner-of-war treatment to all spies and conspirators, and had proposed an article worded as follows: “Spies, conspirators and dissidents shall be included in the exchange (of prisoners), considering that it is in civil war that the application of the law of nations should have greatest scope and that humanity claims most imperatively the application of its precepts. Consequently, spies, conspirators and dissidents shall not be condemned to death or to any other punishment involving personal restraint or penal servitude; any action against them shall be restricted to detention under decent conditions, until the time comes for them to be exchanged as prisoners, for political errors and offences must never be considered as crimes”. The Spanish negotiators refused to agree to the exchange of all spies and conspirators, with the result that prisoner-of-war treatment in respect of this category of prisoner was applied only to peasants seeking to obtain information.

page 348 note 1 In his letter of 23 November 1820, Bolivar demanded prisoner-of-war treatment for these men, and his Commissioners proposed that they should be entitled to be exchanged, under an article VI worded as follows: “Whereas the source of this war lies in differences of opinion and the men who have fiercely fought for each of their respective causes are united to each other by the closest family ties and whereas the shedding of blood must be avoided at all costs, soldiers or employees who, having served either of the two governments, are captured while serving under the flag of the other, shall also be respected and exchanged.” The Spanish negotiators did not agree to include these men in the exchange.