Hague-convention (1).pdf

• This prong of the LOAC/IHL focuses on regulating the means and methods of warfare (e.g., tactics, weapons, and targeting decisions). • any of a series of international treaties that issued from international conferences held at The Hague in the Netherlands in 1899 and 1907. • The Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 limited the means by which belligerent states could conduct warfare.

• The first conference was convened at the invitation of Count Mikhail Nikolayevich Muravyov, the minister of foreign affairs of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia.

• In this convention, three declarations were accepted—one prohibiting the use of asphyxiating gases, another prohibiting the use of expanding bullets (dumdums), and another prohibiting the discharges of projectiles or explosives from balloons. Last, and most important, was the adoption of the Convention for the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes, creating the Permanent Court of Arbitration.

Hague Convention of 1899 • (I): Convention for the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes • (II): Convention with respect to the Laws and Customs of War on Land • (III): Convention for the Adaptation to Maritime Warfare of the Principles of the Geneva Convention of 22 August 1864 • (IV,1): Declaration concerning the Prohibition of the Discharge of Projectiles and Explosives from Balloons or by Other New Analogous Methods • (IV,2): Declaration concerning the Prohibition of the Use of Projectiles with the Sole Object to Spread Asphyxiating Poisonous Gases • (IV,3): Declaration concerning the Prohibition of the Use of Bullets which can Easily Expand or Change their Form inside the Human Body such as Bullets with a Hard Covering which does not Completely Cover the Core, or containing indentations.

Though first proposed by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, was officially convened by Nicholas II. This conference sat from June 15 to Oct. 18, 1907, and was attended by the representatives of 44 states. The conference of 1907 renewed the declaration prohibiting the discharge of projectiles from balloons. The final acts of the conference were the unanimous acceptance by the delegates of the principle of compulsory arbitration and the stating of a number of voeux (resolutions), the first of which was the recommendation that another conference be summoned in eight years, thus establishing the concept that the best way to handle international problems was through a series of successive conferences.

1907

(I): Convention for the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes This convention confirms and expands on Convention (I) of 1899. As of 2013, this convention is in force for 105 states,[1] and 115 states have ratified one or both of the 1907 Convention (I) and the 1899 Convention (I), which together are the founding documents of the Permanent Court of Arbitration. (II): Convention respecting the Limitation of the Employment of Force for Recovery of Contract Debts. (III): Convention relative to the Opening of Hostilities This convention sets out the accepted procedure for a state making a declaration of war. (IV): Convention respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land This convention confirms, with minor modifications, the provisions of Convention (II) of 1899. All major powers ratified it. (V): Convention relative to the Rights and Duties of Neutral Powers and Persons in case of War on Land (VI): Convention relative to the Legal Position of Enemy Merchant Ships at the Start of Hostilities

Hague Convention of 1907

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(VII): Convention relative to the Conversion of Merchant Ships into War-ships (VIII): Convention relative to the Laying of Automatic Submarine Contact Mines. (IX): Convention concerning Bombardment by Naval Forces in Time of War. (X): Convention for the Adaptation to Maritime Warfare of the Principles of the Geneva Convention (of 6 July 1906) This convention updated Convention (III) of 1899 to reflect the amendments that had been made to the 1864 Geneva Convention. Convention (X) was ratified by all major states except the United Kingdom. (XI): Convention relative to Certain Restrictions with regard to the Exercise of the Right of Capture in Naval War (XII): Convention relative to the Establishment of an International Prize Court This convention would have established the International Prize Court for the resolution of conflicting claims relating to captured ships during wartime. It is the one convention that never came into force. It was ratified only by Nicaragua. (XIII): Convention concerning the Rights and Duties of Neutral Powers in Naval War (XIV): Declaration Prohibiting the Discharge of Projectiles and Explosives from Balloons This declaration extended the provisions of Declaration (IV,1) of 1899 to the close of the planned Third Peace Conference (which never took place). Among the major powers, this was ratified only by China, United Kingdom, and the United States.

• International arbitration agreements were major achievements of the Hague conferences. The 1899 conference framed a convention setting forth principles and procedures. British and American proposals resulted in the Permanent Court of Arbitration—a list of judges named by signatory powers from which parties to an arbitration could select a panel of judges. U.S. delegates at the 1907 conference called for a worldwide agreement to make arbitration obligatory in a very limited sense and a Court of Arbitral Justice that would have had a few judges sitting continuously.

• This method is exemplified by the Hague law, consisting of the various Hague Conventions of 1899, as revised in 1907 , plus the 1954 Hague Cultural Property Convention and the 1980 Certain Conventional Weapons Convention. • The rules relating to the means and methods of warfare are primarily derived from Articles 22 through 41 of the Regulations Respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land annexed to Hague Convention IV. Article 22 states that the means of injuring the enemy are not unlimited.

• The Hague conventions played a significant role in the cause to regulate the rules of warfare in international law. Although the Hague conventions reflected the level of military techniques of that period (late 19th and early 20th centuries), their meaning has been preserved and defined because they are based on the progressive principle of the humanization of warfare.

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The following treaties, limiting specific aspects of warfare, are also sources of targeting guidance. These treaties are discussed more fully in the means and methods of warfare section on weapons. Gas - The 1925 Geneva Protocol prohibits use in war of asphyxiating, poisonous, or other gases. Cultural Property - The 1954 Hague Cultural Property Convention seeks to protect cultural property. Biological Weapons - The 1925 Geneva Protocol prohibits biological weapons. The 1972 Biological Weapons Convention prohibits their use in retaliation, as well as production, manufacture, and stockpiling. Conventional Weapons - The 1980 Certain Conventional Weapons Convention restricts or prohibits the use of certain weapons deemed to cause unnecessary suffering or to be indiscriminate: Protocol I - non-detectable fragments; Protocol II - mines, booby traps, and other devices; Protocol III -incendiaries; Protocol IV- laser weapons; and Protocol V -explosive remnants of war, the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention; the 1997 Ottawa Convention on antipersonnel mines; the 2000 Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict.