Additional Protocols to 1949 Geneva Conventions

Additional Protocols to 1949 Geneva Conventions in 2011

United States views on international law (based on the document “Digest of U.S. Practice in International Law”): On March 7, 2011, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced that the Obama administration was seeking advice and consent of the U.S. Senate to ratify Additional Protocol II to the 1949 Geneva Conventions. She also announced that the United States would adhere, out of a sense of legal obligation, to the norms in Article 75 of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions. Secretary Clinton's press statement, excerpted below, is available at (internet link) state.gov/secretary/rm/2011/03/157827.htm. See section A.3.a.(1), below, for discussion of the March 7 White House fact sheet that also discussed the administration's support for Additional Protocol II and Article 75.

Today we are informing the Chair and Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that we intend to seek, as soon as practicable, Senate advice and consent to ratification of the Additional Protocol II to the 1949 Geneva Conventions, which elaborates upon safeguards provided in Common Article 3 and includes more detailed standards regarding fair treatment and fair trial.

Ratifying Protocol II will strengthen the U.S. national security and advance the U.S. interests and values. It is fully consistent with current military practice and would improve America's ability to maintain strong coalition cooperation in ongoing and future operations, as 165 other countries have now ratified the treaty.

The second step we are taking is to declare that as of today, the United States, out of a sense of legal obligation, will adhere to the set of norms in Article 75 of Protocol I in international armed conflicts. Article 75 sets forth humane treatment and fair trial safeguards for certain persons detained by opposing forces in international armed conflict and was praised by President Reagan's Joint Chiefs of Staff as “militarily advantageous insofar as it might make mistreatment of captured U.S. military personnel more difficult to justify in future conflicts.”

These steps we take today are not about who the U.S. enemies are, but about who we are: a nation committed to providing all detainees in the U.S. custody with humane treatment. We are reaffirming that the United States abides by the rule of law in the conduct of armed conflicts and remains committed to the development and maintenance of humanitarian protections in those conflicts.

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See Also

• Use Of Force
• Arms Control
• Disarmament
• Nonproliferation
• International Humanitarian Law