Lesser Ribena
29-08-2005, 13:35
The British government has drafted 2 new conventions to govern the way that wars are fought. In co-operation with the Swiss the following document has been produced and is expected to "civilise" war at sea and involving medical personnel. The British are calling for international leaders to sign the document in order to become protected by it's articles. The final document will be kept safely in a vault at the Geneva Swiss Government Headquarters.
COMBAT AT SEA
MERCHANT SHIPPING
Article 1. All vessels, whether they belong to the State or to individuals, may be summoned by a belligerent war-ship to stop, that a visit and search may be conducted on board them. The belligerent war-ship, in ordering a vessel to stop shall first request it to do so verbally and over a radio channel if available, if disregarded she shall fire a charge of powder as a summons and, if that warning is not sufficient, shall fire a projectile across the bow of the vessel. The vessel answers the signal by returning a signal light or conversing over the radio and by stopping at once; whereupon, the war-ship shall send to the stopped vessel a launch manned by a competent officer and a sufficient number of men, of whom only three shall accompany the officer on board the stopped vessel, these men may be armed only with pistols and swords and not any other side arm.
2. A visit consists in the first place in an examination of the ship's papers. If the ship's papers are not of a nature to allay suspicion, the officer conducting the visit has the right to proceed to a search of the vessel. Vessels which possess no ship's papers, which have intentionally destroyed or hidden those that they had, or which offer false ones, are liable to immediate seizure.
3. Except in the case of persistent refusal to stop on being duly summoned, or of active resistance to a search, a warship, whether surface vessel or submarine, may not sink or render incapable of navigation a merchant vessel without having first placed passengers, crew and ship's papers in a place of safety.
4. When a public or private vessel belonging to one of the belligerent Powers is, at the commencement of hostilities, in an enemy port, it is allowed to depart freely and to proceed, after having been furnished with a passport, to its port of destination, or to any other port indicated.
HOSPITAL SHIPS
5. Hospital ships, that is to say, ships constructed or assigned by States specially and solely with a view to assisting the wounded, sick and shipwrecked, shall be respected, and cannot be captured during hostilities.
6. Military hospital ships shall be distinguished by being painted white outside with a horizontal band of green about a metre and a half (five feet) in breadth in addition to large red crosses being painted on hull sides and the deck. The boats of the ships above mentioned shall be distinguished by similar painting.
7. All hospital ships shall make themselves known by hoisting, alongside their national flag a white flag with the red cross. The ships and boats above mentioned which wish to ensure by night the freedom from interference to which they are entitled, must, take the measures necessary to render their special painting sufficiently plain including the use of signal lights to illuminate their paintwork.
8. These ships cannot be used for any military purpose other than the collection and care of sick and wounded. They must also in no wise hamper the movements of the combatants.
9. All sick and wounded on board hospital vessels are to be treated in the same way as sick and wounded land soldiers and are entitled to the same protection as covered by any previous treaties
10. Hospital ships are no longer entitled to protection if they are employed for the purpose of injuring the enemy. The fact that the staff of the said ships and sick-wards are armed for maintaining order and for defending the sick and wounded is not sufficient reason for withdrawing protection.
IDENTIFICATION
11. All vessels under the control of a belligerent navy are to bear the appropriate markings of that nation's navy and may not masquerade as merchant vessels. All of a nation's vessels either military or merchant must bear that nation's flag on the highest mast.
12. The commander of a war vessel must be in the competent service of the State and duly commissioned by the proper authorities; his name must appear on the full list of officers of the nation’s fighting fleet.
13. Any belligerent who converts a vessel into a war-ship must, as soon as possible, announce such conversion in the list of war-ships, Vessels converted into war-ships must bear the exterior marks which distinguish the war-ships of their nationality. A war-ship may not, while hostilities last, be converted into a public or a private vessel.
14. Privateering of public vessels is hereby forbidden, neither public nor private vessels, nor their personnel, may commit acts of hostility against the enemy. Both may, however, use force to defend themselves against the attack of an enemy vessel.
NAVAL WEAPONS
15. It is forbidden to employ torpedoes which do not become harmless when they have missed their mark.
16. It is forbidden to lay mines in the open sea. Belligerents may lay mines in their territorial waters and in those of the enemy. But it is forbidden, even in territorial waters:
To lay unanchored automatic contact mines unless they are so constructed as to become harmless one hour at most after the person who laid them ceases to control them;
To lay anchored automatic contact mines which do not become harmless as soon as they have broken loose from their moorings.
17. When automatic contact mines, are employed, every precaution must be taken for the security of peaceful shipping. Should the mines cease to be under surveillance, the belligerents shall notify the danger
zones, by a notice addressed to ship-owners, which must also be communicated to the governments through the diplomatic channels.
18. At the close of the war, the belligerent States shall do their utmost to remove the mines that they have laid. As regards the anchored mines laid by one of the belligerents off the coast of the other, their position must be notified to the other party by the State that has laid them, and each State must proceed, to remove the mines in its own waters. Belligerent States upon whom rests the obligation of removing these mines after the war is over shall make known the fact that the mines have been removed.
GENERAL RULES
19. In bombardments all useless destruction is forbidden, and especially should all necessary measures be taken by the commander of the attacking force to spare sacred edifices, buildings used for artistic, scientific, or charitable purposes, historic monuments, hospitals; on condition that they are not used at the same time for military purposes. The bombardment of undefended ports, towns, villages, or buildings is forbidden. A place cannot be bombarded solely because mines are anchored off its coast.
20. Vessels used exclusively for fishing along the coast, or for local trade are exempt from seizure. It is forbidden to take advantage of said boats in order to use them for military purposes while preserving their peaceful appearance.
21. When prisoners of war are to be conveyed by ship, the belligerent nation must take all possible care to distinguish the ship from it's war vessels. Including the painting of the vessel white and the use of the red cross and green band as provisioned for by the Hospital Ships section.
22. It is forbidden to announce that no quarter will be given to the enemy's personnel in case of surrender.
GENERAL PROVISIONS
23. The present convention shall be ratified and signed by all willing nations as soon as possible. The ratifications will be deposited at Berne. A record of the deposit of each act of ratification shall be prepared, of which a duly certified copy shall be sent, through diplomatic channels, to each of the contracting powers.
24. The present convention, when duly ratified, shall supersede any provisions in earlier conventions as to the topics covered here. Earlier conventions remain in force in the relations between the parties who signed it but who may not also ratify the present convention.
25. Each of the contracting parties shall have the right to denounce their signature upon this present convention. This denunciation shall only become operative 6 months after a notification in writing shall have been made to the Swiss Federal Council, which shall forthwith communicate such notification to all the other contracting parties. This denunciation shall only become operative in respect to the power which has given it.
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CONVENTION ON MEDICAL SERVICES
TREATMENT OF THE SICK AND WOUNDED AS PRISONERS OF WAR
Article 1. A person who is sick or wounded is defined as a member of a military related service who is inconvenienced in such a way that they are no longer able to carry out the requirements of their duties in their normal state. A wounded or sick serviceman is not required to fulfil any strenuous duties ordered upon him by his captors and is within his rights to refuse any such service. However he may volunteer, to fulfil other duties such as clerical matters or he may assist medical services in the care of his comrades.
2. After every engagement the belligerent who remains in possession of the field of battle shall take measures to search for the wounded and to protect the wounded and dead from robbery and ill treatment. He will see that a careful examination is made of the bodies of the dead prior to their interment or incineration. All possessions are to be retained for return to next of kin of the deceased through official channels.
3. The sick or wounded, shall be respected and cared for, without distinction of nationality, by the belligerent in whose power they are. A belligerent, however, when compelled to leave his wounded in the hands of his adversary, shall leave with them, so far as military conditions permit, a portion of the personnel and matériel of his medical service to assist in caring for them.
4. The captor retains all rights to do any of the following:
- To repatriate the sick and wounded who are in a condition to be transported
- To repatriate the sick and wounded who have recovered and whom they do not desire to retain
- To send the sick and wounded of the enemy to a neutral state, with the consent of the latter and on condition that it shall charge itself with their internment until the close of hostilities.
In all cases a parole may be requested of a sick or wounded prisoner to guarantee that he will not take up arms against the captors for the period of hostilities.
5. As soon as possible each belligerent shall forward to the authorities of their country or army the marks or military papers of identification found upon the bodies of the dead, together with a list of names of the sick and wounded taken in charge by him. Belligerents will keep each other mutually advised of internments and transfers, together with deaths which occur among the sick and wounded in their hands.
PERSONNEL
6. The personnel charged exclusively with the transportation and treatment of the sick and wounded, as well as the chaplains attached to armies, shall be protected under all circumstances. If they fall into the hands of the enemy they shall not be considered as prisoners of war. These provisions apply to the guards of medical formations who are not combatants but merely exist to deter un-authorised personnel form the area.
MEDICAL SERVICE IDENTIFICATION
7. The heraldic emblem of the red cross on a white ground, formed by the reversal of the federal colours of Switzerland, is hereby continued as the official emblem and distinctive sign of the medical service of armies. This emblem is to appear on flags and materiel as well as uniforms, of said medical service and all items/personnel thus marked are to be recognised as belonging to the service.
8. The personnel protected in virtue of the PERSONNEL section will wear attached to the left arm a brassard bearing a red cross on a white ground, which will be issued and stamped by competent military authority, and accompanied by a certificate of identity in the case of persons attached to the medical service of armies who do not have military uniform.
9. The distinctive flag of the medical services is only to be displayed over the medical formations and establishments which the service provides. It shall be accompanied by the national flag of the belligerent to whose service the formation or establishment is attached. Medical formations which have fallen into the power of the enemy, however, shall fly no other flag than that of the Red Cross so long as they continue in that situation.
10. The medical formations of neutral countries which, under the conditions set forth in the PERSONNEL section, have been authorized to render their services, shall fly, with the flag of the convention, the national flag of the belligerent to which they are attached.
GENERAL PROVISIONS
11. The present convention shall be ratified and signed by all willing nations as soon as possible. The ratifications will be deposited at Berne. A record of the deposit of each act of ratification shall be prepared, of which a duly certified copy shall be sent, through diplomatic channels, to each of the contracting powers.
12. The present convention, when duly ratified, shall supersede any provisions in earlier conventions as to the topics covered here. Earlier conventions remain in force in the relations between the parties who signed it but who may not also ratify the present convention.
13. Each of the contracting parties shall have the right to denounce their signature upon this present convention. This denunciation shall only become operative 6 months after a notification in writing shall have been made to the Swiss Federal Council, which shall forthwith communicate such notification to all the other contracting parties. This denunciation shall only become operative in respect to the power which has given it.
------------------------------------------------
OOC: I have basically used the real Geneva Convention as a basis for this convention and have added new portions to take into account some of the events in the last Great War which were outlawed at a later date in RL. I have also removed some of the superfluous articles form the original convention.
Original RL signatories were: Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, Congo, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States of America, Uruguay. All NPC countries on this list will be assumed to have signed but PC countries will have to physically “sign” this thread.
If you wish to benefit from the convention then you must sign below (ie. leave your leaders name, country and which conventions you are signing below) otherwise you will continue to be treated under the older treaties. British dominions are already covered by the British signature but further Dominion Prime Minister signatures will reaffirm their protection and also guarantee continued protection if they were to later seek independence.
COMBAT AT SEA
MERCHANT SHIPPING
Article 1. All vessels, whether they belong to the State or to individuals, may be summoned by a belligerent war-ship to stop, that a visit and search may be conducted on board them. The belligerent war-ship, in ordering a vessel to stop shall first request it to do so verbally and over a radio channel if available, if disregarded she shall fire a charge of powder as a summons and, if that warning is not sufficient, shall fire a projectile across the bow of the vessel. The vessel answers the signal by returning a signal light or conversing over the radio and by stopping at once; whereupon, the war-ship shall send to the stopped vessel a launch manned by a competent officer and a sufficient number of men, of whom only three shall accompany the officer on board the stopped vessel, these men may be armed only with pistols and swords and not any other side arm.
2. A visit consists in the first place in an examination of the ship's papers. If the ship's papers are not of a nature to allay suspicion, the officer conducting the visit has the right to proceed to a search of the vessel. Vessels which possess no ship's papers, which have intentionally destroyed or hidden those that they had, or which offer false ones, are liable to immediate seizure.
3. Except in the case of persistent refusal to stop on being duly summoned, or of active resistance to a search, a warship, whether surface vessel or submarine, may not sink or render incapable of navigation a merchant vessel without having first placed passengers, crew and ship's papers in a place of safety.
4. When a public or private vessel belonging to one of the belligerent Powers is, at the commencement of hostilities, in an enemy port, it is allowed to depart freely and to proceed, after having been furnished with a passport, to its port of destination, or to any other port indicated.
HOSPITAL SHIPS
5. Hospital ships, that is to say, ships constructed or assigned by States specially and solely with a view to assisting the wounded, sick and shipwrecked, shall be respected, and cannot be captured during hostilities.
6. Military hospital ships shall be distinguished by being painted white outside with a horizontal band of green about a metre and a half (five feet) in breadth in addition to large red crosses being painted on hull sides and the deck. The boats of the ships above mentioned shall be distinguished by similar painting.
7. All hospital ships shall make themselves known by hoisting, alongside their national flag a white flag with the red cross. The ships and boats above mentioned which wish to ensure by night the freedom from interference to which they are entitled, must, take the measures necessary to render their special painting sufficiently plain including the use of signal lights to illuminate their paintwork.
8. These ships cannot be used for any military purpose other than the collection and care of sick and wounded. They must also in no wise hamper the movements of the combatants.
9. All sick and wounded on board hospital vessels are to be treated in the same way as sick and wounded land soldiers and are entitled to the same protection as covered by any previous treaties
10. Hospital ships are no longer entitled to protection if they are employed for the purpose of injuring the enemy. The fact that the staff of the said ships and sick-wards are armed for maintaining order and for defending the sick and wounded is not sufficient reason for withdrawing protection.
IDENTIFICATION
11. All vessels under the control of a belligerent navy are to bear the appropriate markings of that nation's navy and may not masquerade as merchant vessels. All of a nation's vessels either military or merchant must bear that nation's flag on the highest mast.
12. The commander of a war vessel must be in the competent service of the State and duly commissioned by the proper authorities; his name must appear on the full list of officers of the nation’s fighting fleet.
13. Any belligerent who converts a vessel into a war-ship must, as soon as possible, announce such conversion in the list of war-ships, Vessels converted into war-ships must bear the exterior marks which distinguish the war-ships of their nationality. A war-ship may not, while hostilities last, be converted into a public or a private vessel.
14. Privateering of public vessels is hereby forbidden, neither public nor private vessels, nor their personnel, may commit acts of hostility against the enemy. Both may, however, use force to defend themselves against the attack of an enemy vessel.
NAVAL WEAPONS
15. It is forbidden to employ torpedoes which do not become harmless when they have missed their mark.
16. It is forbidden to lay mines in the open sea. Belligerents may lay mines in their territorial waters and in those of the enemy. But it is forbidden, even in territorial waters:
To lay unanchored automatic contact mines unless they are so constructed as to become harmless one hour at most after the person who laid them ceases to control them;
To lay anchored automatic contact mines which do not become harmless as soon as they have broken loose from their moorings.
17. When automatic contact mines, are employed, every precaution must be taken for the security of peaceful shipping. Should the mines cease to be under surveillance, the belligerents shall notify the danger
zones, by a notice addressed to ship-owners, which must also be communicated to the governments through the diplomatic channels.
18. At the close of the war, the belligerent States shall do their utmost to remove the mines that they have laid. As regards the anchored mines laid by one of the belligerents off the coast of the other, their position must be notified to the other party by the State that has laid them, and each State must proceed, to remove the mines in its own waters. Belligerent States upon whom rests the obligation of removing these mines after the war is over shall make known the fact that the mines have been removed.
GENERAL RULES
19. In bombardments all useless destruction is forbidden, and especially should all necessary measures be taken by the commander of the attacking force to spare sacred edifices, buildings used for artistic, scientific, or charitable purposes, historic monuments, hospitals; on condition that they are not used at the same time for military purposes. The bombardment of undefended ports, towns, villages, or buildings is forbidden. A place cannot be bombarded solely because mines are anchored off its coast.
20. Vessels used exclusively for fishing along the coast, or for local trade are exempt from seizure. It is forbidden to take advantage of said boats in order to use them for military purposes while preserving their peaceful appearance.
21. When prisoners of war are to be conveyed by ship, the belligerent nation must take all possible care to distinguish the ship from it's war vessels. Including the painting of the vessel white and the use of the red cross and green band as provisioned for by the Hospital Ships section.
22. It is forbidden to announce that no quarter will be given to the enemy's personnel in case of surrender.
GENERAL PROVISIONS
23. The present convention shall be ratified and signed by all willing nations as soon as possible. The ratifications will be deposited at Berne. A record of the deposit of each act of ratification shall be prepared, of which a duly certified copy shall be sent, through diplomatic channels, to each of the contracting powers.
24. The present convention, when duly ratified, shall supersede any provisions in earlier conventions as to the topics covered here. Earlier conventions remain in force in the relations between the parties who signed it but who may not also ratify the present convention.
25. Each of the contracting parties shall have the right to denounce their signature upon this present convention. This denunciation shall only become operative 6 months after a notification in writing shall have been made to the Swiss Federal Council, which shall forthwith communicate such notification to all the other contracting parties. This denunciation shall only become operative in respect to the power which has given it.
------------------------------------------------------------
CONVENTION ON MEDICAL SERVICES
TREATMENT OF THE SICK AND WOUNDED AS PRISONERS OF WAR
Article 1. A person who is sick or wounded is defined as a member of a military related service who is inconvenienced in such a way that they are no longer able to carry out the requirements of their duties in their normal state. A wounded or sick serviceman is not required to fulfil any strenuous duties ordered upon him by his captors and is within his rights to refuse any such service. However he may volunteer, to fulfil other duties such as clerical matters or he may assist medical services in the care of his comrades.
2. After every engagement the belligerent who remains in possession of the field of battle shall take measures to search for the wounded and to protect the wounded and dead from robbery and ill treatment. He will see that a careful examination is made of the bodies of the dead prior to their interment or incineration. All possessions are to be retained for return to next of kin of the deceased through official channels.
3. The sick or wounded, shall be respected and cared for, without distinction of nationality, by the belligerent in whose power they are. A belligerent, however, when compelled to leave his wounded in the hands of his adversary, shall leave with them, so far as military conditions permit, a portion of the personnel and matériel of his medical service to assist in caring for them.
4. The captor retains all rights to do any of the following:
- To repatriate the sick and wounded who are in a condition to be transported
- To repatriate the sick and wounded who have recovered and whom they do not desire to retain
- To send the sick and wounded of the enemy to a neutral state, with the consent of the latter and on condition that it shall charge itself with their internment until the close of hostilities.
In all cases a parole may be requested of a sick or wounded prisoner to guarantee that he will not take up arms against the captors for the period of hostilities.
5. As soon as possible each belligerent shall forward to the authorities of their country or army the marks or military papers of identification found upon the bodies of the dead, together with a list of names of the sick and wounded taken in charge by him. Belligerents will keep each other mutually advised of internments and transfers, together with deaths which occur among the sick and wounded in their hands.
PERSONNEL
6. The personnel charged exclusively with the transportation and treatment of the sick and wounded, as well as the chaplains attached to armies, shall be protected under all circumstances. If they fall into the hands of the enemy they shall not be considered as prisoners of war. These provisions apply to the guards of medical formations who are not combatants but merely exist to deter un-authorised personnel form the area.
MEDICAL SERVICE IDENTIFICATION
7. The heraldic emblem of the red cross on a white ground, formed by the reversal of the federal colours of Switzerland, is hereby continued as the official emblem and distinctive sign of the medical service of armies. This emblem is to appear on flags and materiel as well as uniforms, of said medical service and all items/personnel thus marked are to be recognised as belonging to the service.
8. The personnel protected in virtue of the PERSONNEL section will wear attached to the left arm a brassard bearing a red cross on a white ground, which will be issued and stamped by competent military authority, and accompanied by a certificate of identity in the case of persons attached to the medical service of armies who do not have military uniform.
9. The distinctive flag of the medical services is only to be displayed over the medical formations and establishments which the service provides. It shall be accompanied by the national flag of the belligerent to whose service the formation or establishment is attached. Medical formations which have fallen into the power of the enemy, however, shall fly no other flag than that of the Red Cross so long as they continue in that situation.
10. The medical formations of neutral countries which, under the conditions set forth in the PERSONNEL section, have been authorized to render their services, shall fly, with the flag of the convention, the national flag of the belligerent to which they are attached.
GENERAL PROVISIONS
11. The present convention shall be ratified and signed by all willing nations as soon as possible. The ratifications will be deposited at Berne. A record of the deposit of each act of ratification shall be prepared, of which a duly certified copy shall be sent, through diplomatic channels, to each of the contracting powers.
12. The present convention, when duly ratified, shall supersede any provisions in earlier conventions as to the topics covered here. Earlier conventions remain in force in the relations between the parties who signed it but who may not also ratify the present convention.
13. Each of the contracting parties shall have the right to denounce their signature upon this present convention. This denunciation shall only become operative 6 months after a notification in writing shall have been made to the Swiss Federal Council, which shall forthwith communicate such notification to all the other contracting parties. This denunciation shall only become operative in respect to the power which has given it.
------------------------------------------------
OOC: I have basically used the real Geneva Convention as a basis for this convention and have added new portions to take into account some of the events in the last Great War which were outlawed at a later date in RL. I have also removed some of the superfluous articles form the original convention.
Original RL signatories were: Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, Congo, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States of America, Uruguay. All NPC countries on this list will be assumed to have signed but PC countries will have to physically “sign” this thread.
If you wish to benefit from the convention then you must sign below (ie. leave your leaders name, country and which conventions you are signing below) otherwise you will continue to be treated under the older treaties. British dominions are already covered by the British signature but further Dominion Prime Minister signatures will reaffirm their protection and also guarantee continued protection if they were to later seek independence.