CONCLUSION

           

36.       The development and partial codification of the laws of war during the second

half of the nineteenth and at the beginning of the twentieth century has led to the formation of certain rules which now are the basis of regulation of warfare under International law. The essential purpose of these rules is to reduce or limit the suffering of individuals and also to limit the area within which the savagery of armed conflict is

Permissible.

 

37.       It was confidently hoped that with the signing of the Charter of the United Nations in 1945 the laws of war, in the older traditional sense, has now ceased to have any application. What the League of Nations had been unable to do would now be done under the new order, and with the elimination of war as an accepted legal status there would be merely the collective action of the United Nations under Article 42 of the Charter as a possible restraint upon the individual state resorting to violence. Assuming the necessity on the part of the United Nations of having resource to armed forces, it was equally to be assumed that the Security Council would hold its military operations within the limits of the traditional laws of war, avoiding the interpretations of military necessity that had marked the two World Wars.

 

38.       The fact that the laws of war was once constituted so large part of international law have now lost their formal character and become part of the history of international law rather than rules of present obligation. Minor wars are still being fought, or rather hostilities that are not bearing the name of ‘war’ and it is to be hoped that the humanitarian customs antedating the Hague Conventions are being observed.

 

39.       In the catastrophic event of a nuclear war between the powers of conflicting ideologies, it could not be expected that the provisions of the Hague Conventions distinguishing between combatants and non-combatants, between military and nonmilitary objectives in bombardment, between permissible and prohibited methods of warfare, would have application, or rather be possible of application, the very instruments themselves being inherently beyond control. The prospect defies the conditions contemplated at the Hague, and all that would remain would be the instinctive reactions of human conduct where one party or the other might survive outside the devastated areas. To speak of law in such circumstance would obviously be a mockery.

 

40.       In view of change in the methods of War of development of devastating weapons, particularly nuclear weapons, it has become necessary to bring about changes in the laws of war. The following are the reasons, which have necessitated changes in the laws of war:

a.         Development of the concept of total war,

b.         Explanation of the World Community as a result of the independence of new states.

c.         Development of human rights.

 

d.         Need for protecting the civilian population from the scourge of war.

 

e.         Need for enforcement of human rights during war.

 

f.          The laws of war were codified long ago, since then revolutionary changes have taken place. Thus should, therefore, be revised and recodified.

 

 

THE SOLDIERS RULES

 

 

1.         Be a disciplined soldier. Disobedience of the laws of war dishonors your army and yourself and causes unnecessary suffering; far from weakening the enemy's will to fight. It often strengthens it.

 

2.         Fight only enemy, combatants and attack only military objectives.

 

3.         Destroy no more than your mission requires.

 

4.         Do not fight enemies who are “out of combat” or who surrender. Disarm and hand them over to your superior.

 

5.         Collect and care for the wounded and sick, be their friend not foe.

 

6.         Treat all civilians and all enemies in your power with humanity.

 

7.         Prisoners of war must be treated humanely and are bound to give only information about their identity. No physical or mental torture of prisoners of war is permitted.

 

8.         Do not take hostages

 

9.         Abstain from all acts of vengeance.

 

10.       Respect all persons and objects bearing the emblem of the Red Cross, Red Crescent, Red Lion-end-Sun, the white flag of truce or emblems designating cultural property.

 

11.       Respect other people's property. Looting is prohibited.

 

12.       Endeavor to prevent any breach of the above rules. Report any violation to your

Superior. Any breach of the laws of war is punishable.