The Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949

The International Committee of the Red Cross has, from the outset, been the sponsor of the Geneva Convention for the protection of wounded military personnel, and of the humanitarian Conventions which supplement it. Each of these fundamental international agreements is inspired by respect for human personality and dignity; together, they establish the principle of disinterested aid to all victims of war without discrimination – to all those who, whether through wounds, capture or shipwreck, are no longer enemies but merely suffering and defenceless human beings.

The year 1945 marked the close of a war waged on an unprecedented scale; the task had to be faced of developing and adapting the humanitarian elements of International Law in the light of the experience gained. The International Committee’s proposals met with the early approval of Governments and National Red Cross Societies, and it immediately set to work.