CURRENT DEVELOPMENTS: PUBLIC INTERNATIONAL LAW - The Geneva Conventions and United Nations Personnel (Protocols) Act 2009: A Move Away From the Minimalist Approach

摘要

The Geneva Conventions and United Nations Personnel (Protocols) Act 2009 makes the necessary changes in domestic law to enable the United Kingdom to ratify two treaties. The first treaty, the 200.5 Third Additional Protocol to the 1949 Geneva Conventions, establishes an additional distinctive (protective) emblem, the red crystal. The second, the 2005 Optional Protocol to the 1994 Convention on the Safety of United Nations and Associated Personnel, extends the legal protection given to personnel involved in two types of UN operations: operations for the purpose of delivering humanitarian, political or development assistance in peace-building, and operations for the purpose of delivering emergency humanitarian assistance. As the Foreign Office Minister of State explained, '[b]oth agreements aim to enhance the protection of personnel operating with a humanitarian purpose.'