On 12 December 1977, in Berne, the Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts (Protocol II), is opened for signature for twelve months. It is not Protocol I, also adopted on 8 June 1977, which concerns international conflicts, and not the 1949 Conventions as such.

The Diplomatic Conference convened by the Swiss Federal Council adopted the Protocol at Geneva on 8 June 1977, after four sessions beginning in 1974. The Final Act is signed on 10 June. Article 20 provides that the Protocol shall be open for signature by the Parties to the Conventions six months after the signing of the Final Act. The depositary is the Swiss Federal Council. The authentic texts are Arabic, Chinese, English, Spanish, French and Russian.

The preamble recalls common Article 3 of the 1949 Conventions as the foundation of respect for the human person in armed conflicts not of an international character, and the principles of humanity. Article 1 develops and supplements common Article 3 without modifying its existing conditions of application. The Protocol applies to conflicts which take place in the territory of a High Contracting Party between its armed forces and dissident armed forces or other organized armed groups which, under responsible command, exercise such control over a part of its territory as to enable them to carry out sustained and concerted military operations. It shall not apply to internal disturbances and tensions, such as riots and isolated and sporadic acts of violence.

Article 3 forbids invoking the Protocol to affect the sovereignty of a State or the responsibility of the government to maintain order, unity and territorial integrity, and forbids using it as a justification for intervention in the conflict or in internal affairs. Article 4 guarantees humane treatment to persons who do not take a direct part in hostilities. Murder, torture, collective punishments, taking of hostages, acts of terrorism, outrages upon personal dignity, slavery, pillage and threats to commit those acts are prohibited at any time and in any place. Children who have not attained the age of fifteen shall neither be recruited nor allowed to take part in hostilities. It is prohibited to order that there shall be no survivors.

Articles 5 and 6 concern persons deprived of liberty and penal prosecutions: no sentence except pursuant to a conviction by a court offering essential guarantees of independence and impartiality, individual penal responsibility, and the presumption of innocence. Part III protects the wounded, sick and shipwrecked, medical and religious personnel, medical units and transports. Article 13 protects the civilian population against the dangers arising from military operations; civilians shall not be the object of attack unless they take a direct part in hostilities. Article 14 protects objects indispensable to survival; Article 17 forbids ordered displacement of civilians unless the security of the civilians or imperative military reasons so demand.

Article 21 requires ratification as soon as possible, with deposit with the Federal Council. Article 23 provides that the Protocol shall enter into force six months after two instruments of ratification or accession have been deposited. Ghana signs on the same day and later deposits its ratification on 28 February 1978; Libya accedes on 7 June 1978. The Protocol entered into force on 7 December 1978. Article 25 limits denunciation: if the denouncing Party is engaged in the situation referred to in Article 1, the denunciation shall not take effect before the end of the armed conflict.

It is not common Article 3 as such and not Protocol III of 8 December 2005 on the additional distinctive emblem. It is not the 1954 Hague Convention on cultural property, to which Article 16 of the Protocol refers without replacing it.

Image: Federal Palace, Berne; August Geyler, 27 February 2022; CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. Cropped to 16:9.

Source consulted: Protocol II to the Geneva Conventions. Treaty text: Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts, 12 December 1977.