Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907
First multilateral treaties codifying laws of war.
The Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 are a series of international treaties and declarations negotiated at two peace conferences in the Netherlands. Along with the Geneva Conventions, they were among the first formal statements of the laws of war and war crimes in secular international law. The First Hague Conference created the Permanent Court of Arbitration, the first global mechanism for peaceful resolution of international disputes.
Quick Facts
- First conference opened
- 18 May 1899
- First conference signed
- 29 July 1899
- Second conference opened
- 15 June 1907
- Second conference signed
- 18 October 1907
Facts from the source article.
History
The Hague Conventions drew heavily on the Lieber Code, issued by US President Abraham Lincoln to Union Forces on 24 April 1863 during the American Civil War. That code was the first official comprehensive codification of regulations for martial law, protection of civilians and property, treatment of prisoners of war, and other wartime conduct. It was widely regarded as the best summary of 19th-century customary laws of war and was adopted by other nations. The 1874 Brussels Declaration, though never adopted by all major powers, listed 56 articles inspired by the Lieber Code.
Legacy
Many rules laid down at the Hague Conventions were violated in World War I. The German invasion of neutral Luxembourg and Belgium in August 1914 violated Convention (V) of 1907, which prohibited belligerents from violating neutral territory. Poison gas was used by almost all major belligerents, violating Declaration (IV, 2) of 1899 and Convention (IV) of 1907, which forbade poison or poisoned weapons. In 1918, German international law scholar Walther Schücking called the assemblies the 'international union of Hague conferences,' seeing them as a nucleus for a future international federation. After World War II, the Nuremberg Trials tribunal found that by 1939 the rules of the 1907 Hague Convention IV were recognized by all civilized nations as declaratory of the laws and customs of war, binding even on non-ratifying states. Although largely superseded by other treaties, the Hague Conventions remain symbols of the need for restrictions on war. Since 2000, Convention (I) of 1907 on the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes has been ratified by 20 additional states.
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