Geneva Convention (it makes some would be necessary to say Geneva Conventions) constitutes the concretization of a vast movement of international law which, since 1864, date of the first Convention, tends to guarantee the essential rights of the human person taken in the pressure of the war. One often associates the concept of the Red Cross with it, because this one is at the origin of the first Convention, which, in return, gave him a legal protection.

In fact, four new Conventions of 1949 considerably increased the obligations between States in fields which do not relate to only any more the Red Cross. 

One cannot separate Geneva Convention from the institution of the Red Cross nor of the name from his founder, Henry Dunant, a 31 years Genevese, which, being in Solférino by chance, if was moved by the spectacle by the “horrors of the war” that to try to attenuate them or to remove them became the goal of its existence. Dunant caused, with some volunteers, the convocation of a semi-official International Conference “to study the means of providing for the insufficiency with the sanitary service in the armies in shift”. This conference, held in 1863, was at the origin of the birth of the Red Cross. Less than one year later was held the diplomatic Conference of 1864, which drew up Geneva Convention .

The Convention of 1864 devotes the principle that the wounded or sick soldiers, from now on without defense, must be respected and neat irrespective of nationality. It thus envisages, consequently, and in the exclusive interest of the casualties, the protection of the ambulances and military hospitals against any hostile act, like that of the medical personnel. It devotes the generalization of the Red Cross on white zone like characteristic of this immunity. Though innovating considerably by introducing, for the first time, a moral idea concerning with the human person in the sphere of the interests of the States, this Convention, which knew its first serious application at the time of the First World War , was quickly regarded as requiring a field of application much wider. It was the starting point of the vast movement of international law which one could call “Movement of Geneva” which, of 1864 to 1949, constituted this whole of humane international laws intended to protect all those which, directly or indirectly, are entitled to the title of war victim.

 The second stage after 1864 was the Convention of 1929, which ensures the protection of the prisoners of war. Lastly, the need was felt, because of the width of the modern wars, to protect the civilians. Unfortunately the text regulating this protection was not ready to be applied before the Second world war . After 1945, the objectives of preceding Conventions increased by this last were taken again and reorganized in the four Conventions of August 12th, 1949 - signed then and ratified by almost all the States of the world. 

The first and the second Convention relate to the improvement of the fate of the casualties, the patients and the armed forces on ground and sea. They take again the provisions of the Convention of 1864 by specifying them and by adapting them at the time. They regulate the fate of the medical personnel fallen to the power from the opposing party, which, without being considered as prisoners of war, can be legally retained. They have the reserved treatment finally with the medical material, which can be regarded as spoils of war, but could not be diverted of its employment as long as it will be necessary for the casualties and the patients. Article 18 of the first Convention is revealing spirit of this convention: “No one will have to never be worried or condemned for the fact of having given care to casualties or to patients”.

The third Convention relates to the prisoner of war salary. It substitutes for the idea that the prisoner is the thing of the winners that which he is a soldier who one can prevent from taking again the weapons, but on which one does not have other rights. By defining a very vast field of application, it prevents that prisoners see themselves, arbitrarily, withdrawn from its empire, which had occurred during the application of the Convention of 1929. It includes in particular in its field of action all those which one names commonly “in favor” or of the members of regular troops which are claimed of a government not recognized by the power holder like, for example, the French troops raised by the de Gaulle general in 1940 - but stipulates, by an additional protocol going back to 1977, qu ' a mercenary is not entitled to the statute of combatant or prisoner of war. It improves the mode of the captivity.

The fourth Convention relates to the protection of the civilians in time of war, and corresponds in a new irrefutable fact created by the development of the modern war. It tends to completely regulate the situation of the civilians opposite being able it that the enemy authority can exert on them. The needs for the war justify a certain number of restrictions brought to the exercise of the human rights. To fix the limit beyond which the belligerent States cannot go in the establishment of these restrictions, such is the fundamental goal of this Convention. It guarantees, in all circumstances, the respect of the person, the honor, the family rights, the religious convictions and the habits. She prohibits the taking of hostages. Let us note that a new Geneva Convention, of July 25th, 1951, proceeded to a coordination and a revision of all the former texts relating to the fate of the refugees and stateless people.

Geneva Convention thus made cross an important step with humanity towards more justice and more comprehension. It remains to show which would be its range in the case of a world war supported by thermonuclear weapons called “blind” and to wonder whether it does not call the signature of a new Convention, that which would conclude with a total atomic disarmament.