ON the 75th anniversary of the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) made a call to make the Geneva Conventions a political priority.

"In a divided world, the Geneva Conventions and international humanitarian law embody universal values that preserve lives and dignity," said ICRC President Mirjana Spoljaric.

"They are essential to preventing and protecting against the worst effects of war, and ensuring that everyone, even an enemy, is treated as a human being," Spoljaric added.

The Conventions, the foundational treaties of international humanitarian law, have been a remarkable success in many ways. They have saved lives, and prohibited torture and sexual violence. They have required humane treatment of detainees. Most fundamentally, they have reflected a global consensus that all wars have limits.

Nevertheless, 75 years after their adoption, international humanitarian law (IHL) has been under strain, and at times, even used to justify violence. And that's why the world must recommit to this robust, protective framework for armed conflict — one that would save lives rather than rationalize death.

The ICRC spoke of 20 active conflicts in 1999. Today, there have been more than 120. Given the scale, Spoljaric was proposing four means to reduce suffering: (1) Parties to armed conflict must make a renewed and profound commitment to the Geneva Conventions, adhering to the letter and the spirit of the law; (2) tangible humanitarian improvements in places affected by armed conflict must be made; (3) states should ratify and uphold IHL treaties, especially the Geneva Conventions' additional protocols; and (4) states must affirm that the use of new technologies of warfare — artificial intelligence, cyber and information operations — strictly adhere to IHL, and must develop new limits on autonomous weapon systems.

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The International Committee of the Red Cross is a neutral, impartial and independent organization with an exclusively humanitarian mandate that stems from the Geneva Conventions of 1949. It helps people around the world affected by armed conflict and other violence. CONTRIBUTED IMAGE