Applicability of the Conventions by Means of Ad Hoc Agreements

Despite the provision of art. 3, par. 3, common to the Geneva Conventions, according to which the Parties to an armed conflict not of an international character ‘should … endeavour to bring into force, by means of special agreements, all or part of the other provisions of the … Conventions’, the number of such agreements is extremely scant. This paper briefly touches on the possible reasons underlying this paucity and then turns to examining the existing special agreements with regard to their content, legal status and consequences in case of their breach. In 2017 the volume where this contribution is inserted has been awarded the prestigious CERTIFICATE OF MERIT for ‘High Technical Craftsmanship and Utility to Practicing Lawyers and Scholars’ by the American Society of International Law.