Chapter

"Treaty after trauma" : "protection for all" in the Fourth Geneva Convention

Gilad Ben-Nun

History and international law : an intertwined relationship

Cheltenham ; Northampton : E. Elgar, 2019

p. 103-134

English

This chapter examines how the drafters of the Fourth Geneva Convention for Civilians (‘GC-IV’) extended its ratione personae so that no person could be beyond its basic protective scope, as implied by the provisions of its Common Article 3. Based upon hitherto unpublished sources from French, Bulgarian, ICRC and World Jewish Congress archives, it traces the evolvement of the ‘protection for all’ principle, from the Civilian Convention’s very first blueprint uncovered here, through the World Jewish Congress’ interventions on behalf of civilians targeted by their own governments in 1948 in Stockholm, and up to the Soviet bloc’s unwavering support for this idea at the 1949 Geneva Conference of Plenipotentiaries. Correspondingly, this chapter recalibrates our understanding of the paramount role played by the Soviet bloc in the securement of Common Article 3’s provisions and refutes a commonly-held perception that the Soviet participation in GC-IV’s drafting was solely intended for propaganda purposes.

• History and international law : an intertwined relationship / ed. by Annalisa Ciampi