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Reservations to the 1949 Geneva Conventions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 November 2010

Claude Pilloud*
Affiliation:
Deputy Director for General Affairs of the ICRC

Extract

By July 31, 1957, sixty-six States were bound to the Geneva Conventions, either by ratification or accession. From that date to May 31, 1965, a further 40 States acceded to these Conventions, bringing the total to 106. Several of the newly independent States confirmed their participation by delivering to the Custodian Government—the Swiss Federal Council—a declaration of continuity, that is to say, a document in which they confirmed that from the date of their independence they were committed by the ratification signed by the Powers to which they had succeeded.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © International Committee of the Red Cross 1965

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Footnotes

1

For the situation obtaining on July 31, 1957, see “Reservations to the 1949 Geneva Conventions” by the same author originally published in French in the August 1957 issue of Revue Internationale de la Croix-Rouge, and in English in the June, July and September 1958 supplements.

References

2 In chronological order: Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Great Britain, Sudan, Dominican Republic, Ghana, Indonesia, Australia, Cambodia, Mongolian People's Republic, Ceylon, New Zealand, Republic of Algeria, Republic of the Congo (Leopoldville), Portugal, Nigeria, Paraguay, Upper Volta, Colombia, Ivory Coast, Dahomey, Togo, Cyprus, Federation of Malaysia, Ireland, Islamic Republic of Mauritania, Tanganyika, Senegal, Trinidad and Tobago, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Madagascar, Federal Republic of Cameroon, Kingdom of Nepal, Republic of Niger, Rwanda, Uganda, Jamaica, Republic of Gabon, Canada, Mali.

3 For scope and consequences see previous study of 1957 and 1958.

4 See our previous study.

5 Geneva Conventions for the protection of war victims. Report of the Committee on Foreign Relations: 48th Congress, 1st Session, Washington, 1955, p. 29.

6 Ibid.

7 American Journal of International Law, 1955, p. 552.Google Scholar

8 “A reservation means a unilateral statement made by a State whereby it purports to exclude or vary the legal effect of some provision of the treaty in its application to that State ”. International Law Commission; 1962 Report, Treaty Law, Art. 1.