Chapter

Common Article 1 of the Geneva Conventions : scope and content of the obligation to "ensure respect" : "narrow but deep" or "wide and shallow" ?

Robin Geiss

Inducing compliance with international humanitarian law : lessons from the African Great Lakes Region

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2015

p. 417-441

English

In this chapter Robin Geiss examines whether Common Article 1 to the four Geneva Conventions includes an external compliance dimension, that is a duty to ensure respect vis-à-vis other States and/or non-State actors who violate the Conventions. On the basis of an analysis of the relevant State practice, the author submits that the obligation to ensure respect should be understood as a wide obligation which requires States to take positive measures whenever the Geneva Conventions are infringed.

• Full text : restricted access (ICRC)

• Inducing compliance with international humanitarian law : lessons from the African Great Lakes Region / ed. by Heike Krieger ; assistant ed. Jan Willms