“The ICRC has the right and the duty to innovate whenever the principles of humanity so require”. This quote from Renée-Marguerite Frick-Cramer is inscribed on a wall at the headquarters of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Geneva. Frick-Cramer was the first woman to be an ICRC delegate and the first woman appointed to the ICRC’s executive board in 1918.
She made a significant contribution to the development of the Geneva Conventions of 1949. 2024 marks the 75th anniversary of the Geneva Conventions, which form the core of international humanitarian law. These four conventions protect people who are victims of war.
“Since ancient times and all over the world, there have been agreements in wars to protect vulnerable people such as children, women and old men,” says Daniel Palmieri, a historian at the ICRC, in an interview with SWI swissinfo. But unlike those often temporary agreements, international humanitarian law is permanent and universal. While the first two Geneva Conventions of 1949 protect wounded and sick soldiers in land and naval warfare, the 3rd Convention includes provisions on the treatment of prisoners of war.
And the 4th Convention protects “civilians in time of war”, especially in occupied territories. The protection of civilians in international humanitarian law was new. The 4th Convention also prohibits attacks on medical facilities.
International rules for the protection of prisoners of war were laid down 95 years ago in.