Your will read:International agreements have the nature of treaties and bind the signing nations.
* The Hague Convention Concerning the Laws and Customs of War on Land, October 18, 1907
*"The Fourth Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in time of War," August 12, 1949,
"The Hague Convention Concerning the Laws and Customs
of War on Land," 2nd Peace Conference, The Hague, October 18, 1907.
Articles include: Section II, Chapter I:
#23. It is especially forbidden:
c. To kill or wound an enemy who, having laid down his arms,
or having no longer means of defence, has surrendered at discretion;
g. To destroy or seize the enemy's property, unless such destruction
or seizure be imperatively demanded by the necessities of war.
#25. The attack or bombardment, by whatever means, of towns, villages,
dwellings, or buildings which are undefended is prohibited.
#26. The officer in command of an attacking force must, before commencing
a bombardment, except in cases of assault, do all in his power to warn
the authorities.
#27. In sieges and bombardments all necessary steps must be taken to
spare, as far as possible, buildings dedicated to religion, art, science,
or charitable purposes, historic monuments, hospitals, and places where
the sick and wounded are collected, provided they are not being used at
the time for military purposes.
#28. The pillage of a town or place, even when taken by assault, is
prohibited.
Chapter V:
#36. An armistice suspends military operations by mutual agreement
between the belligerent parties. If its duration is not defined, the belligerent
parties may resume operations at any time, provided always that the enemy
is warned within the time agreed upon, in accordance with the terms of
the armistice.
Section III:
#46. Family honour and rights, the lives of persons, and private property,
as well as religious convictions and practice, must be respected. Private
property cannot be confiscated.
#47. Pillage is formally forbidden.
#50. No general penalty, pecuniary or otherwise, shall be inflicted
upon the population on account of the acts of individuals for which they
cannot be regarded as jointly and severally responsible.
#56. The property of municipalities, that of institutions dedicated
to religion, charity and education, the arts and sciences, even when State
property, shall be treated as private property.
All seizure of, destruction or wilful damage done to institutions
of this character, historic monuments, works of art and science, is forbidden,
and should be made the subject of legal proceedings.
"The Fourth Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection
of Civilian Persons in time of War," August 12, 1949, supplements Hague
regarding civilians. Its 159 articles include:
#29. The Party to the conflict in whose hands protected persons may
be, is responsible for the treatment accorded to them by its agents, irrespective
of any individual responsibility which may be incurred.
#32. The High Contracting Parties specifically agree that each of them
is prohibited from taking any measure of such a character as to cause the
physical suffering or extermination of protected persons in their hands.
This prohibition applies not only to murder, torture, corporal punishments,
mutilation and medical or scientific experiments not necessitated by the
medical treatment of a protected person, but also to any other measures
of brutality whether applied by civilian or military agents.
#33. No protected person may be punished for an offence he or she has
not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures
of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited.
Pillage is prohibited.
Reprisals against protected persons and their property
are prohibited.
#34. The taking of hostages is prohibited.
#41. Should the Power in whose hands protected persons may be consider
the measures of control mentioned in the present Convention to be inadequate,
it may not have recourse to any other measure of control more severe than
that of assigned residence or internment, in accordance with the provisions
of Articles 42 and 43.
In applying the provisions of Article 39, second paragraph,
to the cases of persons required to leave their usual places of residence
by virtue of a decision placing them in assigned residence elsewhere, the
Detaining Power shall be guided as closely as possible by the standards
of welfare set forth in Part III, Section IV of this Convention.
#42. The internment or placing in assigned residence of protected persons
may be ordered only if the security of the Detaining Power makes it absolutely
necessary....
#43. Any protected person who has been interned or placed in as-signed
residence shall be entitled to have such action reconsidered as soon as
possible by an appropriate court or administrative board designated by
the Detaining Power for that purpose. If the intern-ment or placing in
assigned residence is maintained, the court or administrative board shall
periodically, and at least twice yearly, give consideration to his or her
case, with a view to the favourable amendment of the initial decision,
if circumstances permit....
#46. In so far as they have not been previously withdrawn, restrictive
measures taken regarding protected persons shall be cancelled as soon as
possible after the close of hostilities.
Restrictive measures affecting their property shall be
cancelled, in accordance with the law of the Detaining Power, as soon as
possible after the close of hostilities.
#47. Protected persons who are in occupied territory shall not be deprived,
in any case or in any manner whatsoever, of the benefits of the present
Convention by any change introduced, as the result of the occupation of
a territory, into the institutions or government of the said territory,
nor by any agreement concluded between the authorities of the occupied
territories and the Occupying Power, nor by any annexation by the latter
of the whole or part of the occupied territory.
#49. Individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations
of protected persons from occupied territory to the territory of the Occupying
Power or to that of any other country, occupied or not, are prohibited,
regardless of their motive.
Nevertheless, the Occupying Power may undertake total
or par-tial evacuation of a given area if the security of the population
or imperative military reasons so demand. Such evacuations may not involve
the displacement of protected persons outside the bounds of the occupied
territory except when for material reasons it is im-possible to avoid such
displacement. Persons thus evacuated shall be transferred back to their
homes as soon as hostilities in the area in question have ceased.
The Occupying Power undertaking such transfers or evacuations
shall ensure, to the greatest practicable extent, that proper accommodation
is provided to receive the protected persons, that the removals are effected
in satisfactory conditions of hygiene, health, safety and nutrition, and
that members of the same family are not separated.
The Protecting Power shall be informed of any transfers
and evacuations as soon as they have taken place.
The Occupying Power shall not detain protected persons
in an area particularly exposed to the dangers of war unless the security
of the population or imperative military reasons so demand.
The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts
of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.
#53: Any destruction by the Occupying Power of real or personal property
belonging individually or collectively to private persons, or to the State,
or to other public authorities, or to social or co-operative organizations,
is prohibited, except where such destruction is rendered absolutely necessary
by military operations.
#78: If the Occupying Power considers it necessary, for imperative
reasons of security, to take safety measures concerning protected persons,
it may, at the most, subject them to assigned residence or to internment.
Decisions regarding such assigned residence or internment
shall be made according to a regular procedure to be prescribed by the
Occupying Power in accordance with the provisions of the present Convention.
This procedure shall include the right of appeal for the parties concerned.
Appeals shall be decided with the least possible delay. In the event of
the decision being upheld, it shall be subject to periodical review, if
possible every six months, by a competent body set up by the said Power.
Protected persons made subject to assigned residence and
thus required to leave their homes shall enjoy the full benefit of Article
39 [re employment] of the present Convention.
#114. Detaining Power shall afford internees all facilities to enable
them to manage their property, provided this is not incompatible with the
conditions of internment and the law which is applicable. For this purpose,
the said Power may give them permission to leave the place of internment
in urgent cases and if circumstances allow.
#130. The detaining authorities shall ensure that internees who die
while interned are honourably buried, if possible according to the rites
of the religion to which they belonged and that their graves are respected,
properly maintained, and marked in such a way that they can always be recognized.
#139. Each national Information Bureau shall, furthermore, be responsible
for collecting all personal valuables left by protected persons mentioned
in Article 136, in particular those who have been repatriated or released,
or who have escaped or died; it shall forward the said valuables to those
concerned, either direct, or, if necessary, through the Central Agency.
Such articles shall be sent by the Bureau in sealed packets which shall
be accompanied by statements giving clear and full identity particulars
of the person to whom the articles belonged, and by a complete list of
the contents of the parcel. Detailed records shall be maintained of the
receipt and despatch of all such valuables.
#147. Grave breaches to which the preceding Article relates shall be
those involving any of the following acts, if committed against persons
or property protected by the present Convention: wilful killing, torture
or inhuman treatment, including biological experiments, wilfully causing
great suffering or serious injury to body and health, unlawful deportation
or transfer or unlawful confinement of a protected person, compelling a
protected person to serve in the forces of a hostile Power, or wilfully
depriving a protected person of the rights of fair and regular trial prescribed
in the present Convention, taking of hostages and extensive destruction
and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and
carried out unlawfully and wantonly.
#148. No High Contracting Party shall be allowed to absolve itself
or any other High Contracting Party of any liability incurred by itself
or by another High Contracting Party in respect of breaches referred to
in the preceding Article.
#158. Each of the High Contracting Parties shall be at liberty to denounce
the present Convention....The denunciation shall have effect only in respect
of the denouncing Power. It shall in no way impair the obligations which
the Parties to the conflict shall remain bound to fulfil by virtue of the
principles of the law of nations, as they result from the usages established
among civilized peoples, from the laws of humanity and the dictates of
the public conscience.
UNGA passed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on
December 10, 1948. Ten articles are given in Chapter Ten, Section V.