[16] CONVENTION FOR THE ADAPTATION TO MARITIME WARFARE OF THE PRINCIPLES OF THE GENEVA CONVENTION OF AUGUST 22, 1864 (For the heading see the Convention for the pacific settlement of international disputes.) Animated alike by the desire to diminish as far as depends on them the inevitable evils of war, and wishing with this object to adapt to maritime warfare the principles of the Geneva Convention of August 22, 1864, have resolved to conclude a convention for this purpose. They have in consequence appointed the following as their plenipotentiaries : [Here follow the names of plenipotentiaries.] Who, after having communicated their full powers, found in good and due form, have agreed upon the following provisions: ARTICLE 1 Military hospital ships, that is to say, ships constructed or assigned by States specially and solely with the view to assist the wounded, sick and shipwrecked, the names of which have been communicated to the belligerent Powers at the commencement or during the course of hositilities, and in any case before they are employed, shall be respected and can not be captured while hostilities last. These ships, moreover, are not on the same footing as men-of-war as regards their stay in a neutral port. ARTICLE 2 Hospital ships, equipped wholly or in part at the expense of private individuals or officially recognized relief societies, shall likewise be respected and exempt from capture, if the belligerent Power to which they belong has given them an official commission and has notified their names to the hostile Power at the commencement of or during hostilities, and in any case before they are employed. These ships shall be provided with a certificate from the competent authorities, declaring that they had been under their control while fitting out and on final departure. ARTICLE 3 Hospital ships, equipped wholly or in part at the expense of private individuals or officially recognized societies of neutral countries, shall be respected and exempt from capture, if the neutral Power to which they belong has given them an official commission and has notified their names to the belligerent Powers at the commencement of or during hostilities, and in any case before they are employed. ARTICLE 4 The ships mentioned in Articles 1, 2 and 3 shall afford relief and assistance to the wounded, sick, and shipwrecked of the belligerents without distinction of nationality. The Governments undertake not to use these ships for any military purpose. These ships must in nowise hamper the movements of the combatants. [17] During and after an engagement they will act at their own risk and peril. The belligerents will have the right to control and search them; they can refuse to help them, order them off, make them take a certain course, and put a commissioner on board; they can even detain them, if important circumstances require it. As far as possible the belligerents shall enter in the log of the hospital ships the orders which they give them. ARTICLE 5 Military hospital ships shall be distinguished by being painted white outside with a horizontal band of green about a metre and a half in breadth. The ships mentioned in Articles 2 and 3 shall be distinguished by being painted white outside with a horizontal band of red about a metre and a half in breadth. The boats of the ships above-mentioned, as also small craft which may be used for hospital work, shall be distinguished by similar painting. All hospital ships shall make themselves known by hoisting, with their national flag, the white flag with a red cross provided by the Geneva Convention. ARTICLE 6 Neutral merchantmen, yachts, or vessels, having, or taking on board, sick, wounded, or shipwrecked of the belligerents, cannot be captured for so doing, but they are liable to capture for any violation of neutrality they may have committed. ARTICLE 7 The religious, medical, and hospital staff of any captured ship is inviolable, and its members cannot be made prisoners of war. On leaving the ship they take with them the objects and surgical instruments which are their own private property. This staff shall continue to discharge its duties while necessary, and can afterwards leave when the commander in chief considers it possible. The belligerents must guarantee to the said staff when it has fallen into their hands the enjoyment of their salaries intact. ARTICLE 8 Sailors and soldiers on board when sick or wounded, to whatever nation they belong, shall be protected and tended by the captors. ARTICLE 9 The shipwrecked, wounded, or sick of one of the belligerents who fall into the power of the other, are prisoners of war. The captor must decide, according to circumstances, whether to keep them, send them to a port of his own country, to a neutral port, or even to an enemy port. In this last case, prisoners thus repatriated cannot serve again while the war lasts. ARTICLE 101 The shipwrecked, wounded, or sick, who are landed at a neutral port, with the consent of the local authorities, must, unless an arrangement is made to the contrary between the neutral State and the belligerent States, be guarded by the neutral State so as to prevent their again taking part in the operations of the war. The expenses of tending them in hospital and interning them shall be borne by the State to which the shipwrecked, sick, or wounded belong. ARTICLE 11 The rules contained in the above articles are binding only on the contracting Powers, in case of war between two or more of them. The said rules shall cease to be binding from the time when, in a war between the contracting Powers, one of the belligerents is joined by a non-contracting Power. ARTICLE 12 The present Convention shall be ratified as soon as possible. On the receipt of each ratification a procès-verbal shall be drawn up, a copy of which, duly certified, shall be sent through the diplomatic channel to all the contracting Powers. ARTICLE 13 [18] Non-signatory Powers which have accepted the Geneva Convention of August 22, 1864, may adhere to the present Convention. For this purpose they must make their adhesion known to the contracting Powers by means of a written notification addressed to the Netherland Government, and by it communicated to all the other contracting Powers. ARTICLE 14 In the event of one of the high contracting Parties denouncing the present Convention, such denunciation shall not take effect until a year after the notification made in writing to the Netherland Government, and forthwith communicated by it to all the other contracting Powers. This denunciation shall have effect only in regard to the notifying Power. In faith of which the respective plenipotentiaries have signed the present Convention and have affixed their seals thereto. Done at The Hague, July 29, 1899, in a single original, which shall remain deposited in the archives of the Netherland Government, and copies of which, duly certified, shall be sent through the diplomatic channel to the contracting Powers. 1 ' [Germany, the United States, Great Britain, and Turkey signed this Convention under reservation of Article 10. On an understanding subsequently reached by the Government of the Netherlands and the signatory Powers it was agreed to exclude this article from the ratifications of the Convention. The Article was, however, adopted in the above form at the Second Hague Conference and appears as Article 15 in Convention No. 10, Actes et documents, vol. i, p. 661; this translation, p. 653. [19] CONVENTION RESPECTING THE LAWS AND CUSTOMS (For the heading see the Convention for the pacific settlement of international disputes.) Considering that, while seeking means to preserve peace and prevent armed conflicts between nations, it is likewise necessary to bear in mind the case where an appeal to arms may be brought about by events which their solicitude could not avert; Animated by the desire to serve, even in this extreme case, the interests of humanity and the ever progressive needs of civilization; Thinking it important, with this object, to revise the general laws and customs of war, either with the view of defining them with greater precision, or of confining them within such limits as would mitigate their severity as far as possible; Inspired by these views which are enjoined at the present day, as they were twenty-five years ago at the time of the Brussels Conference in 1874, by a wise and generous forethought; Have, in this spirit, adopted a great number of provisions, the object of which is to define and govern the usages of war on land. According to the views of the high contracting Parties, these provisions, the wording of which has been inspired by the desire to diminish the evils of war, so far as military requirements permit, are intended to serve as a general rule of conduct for the belligerents in their mutual relations and in their relations with the inhabitants. It has not, however, been found possible at present to concert regulations covering all the circumstances which arise in practice; On the other hand, the high contracting Parties clearly do not intend that unforeseen cases should, in the absence of a written undertaking, be left to the arbitrary judgment of military commanders. Until a more complete code of the laws of war has been issued, the high contracting Parties deem it expedient to declare that, in cases not included in the regulations adopted by them, the inhabitants and the belligerents remain under the protection and the rule of the principles of the law of nations, as they result from the usages established among civilized peoples, from the laws of humanity, and from the dictates of the public conscience. They declare that it is in this sense especially that Articles 1 and 2 of the Regulations adopted must be understood. The high contracting Parties, wishing to conclude a Convention to this effect, have appointed as their plenipotentiaries, to wit: [Here follow the names of plenipotentiaries.] Who, after communication of their full powers, found in good and due form, have agreed upon the following: ARTICLE 1 The high contracting Parties shall issue instructions to their armed land forces, which shall be in conformity with the "Regulations respecting the laws and customs of war on land" annexed to the present Convention. |