This lecture presents the brief history of International Humanitarian Law. It explains how precursor of present day IHL are found in all cultures.

1. A BRIEF HISTORY OF IHL

2. PRESENTATION BY
Major General Nilendra
Kumar
President,
Akhil Bhartiya Vidhi
Pradhaypak Sangam

3.  Precursor of present day IHL are found in all
cultures
 Mahabharata, the Indian epic
 In religions books such as the Bible or the
Kuran
 Rules on the art of war (the books Teaching
of Kautilya in Artha Shashtra, or in Manu
Smiriti)
 Japanese code of behaviour, the Bushido

4. BATTLE OF HYDASPES (326 BC)
 Fought between the Indian king Porus and
Alexander, the great. The battle look place at the
site of Mong, now part of Pakistan. In the aftermath
of Alexander’s victory and the defeat and arrest of
Porus, Alexander asked Porus how he would like to
be treated. Porus proudly replied they would like to
be treated like a king. Alexander was reportedly so
impressed by his adversary that he not only
reinstalled him as a satrap of his own kingdom but
also granted him dominion over other land.

5. KALINGA WAR
 The war (ended BC 265)was fought
between the Maurya Empire under Ashoka
and King Raja Anantha (or suratha) in the
present day states of Odisha and Andra
Pradesh.
 The bloodshed of this war is said to have
prompted Ashoka to adopt Buddhism.

6. SIEGE OF JERUSALEM (1099)
 The action during the First Crusade and its
successful seize saw the crusaders take
Jerusalem from the Fatimide Caliphate and
laid the foundations for the kingdom of
Jerusalem. It saw the mass slaughter
savage and widespread, of Muslims and
Jews perpetrated by the Christian
Crusaders.

7. HENRY DUNANT
(8TH MAY 1828-30 OCTOBER 1910)
 Known as the father of the Red Cross, a
Swiss humanitarian, businessman and
social activist, In 1901,the Nobel committee
awarded him awarded him its first Peace
Prize shared jointly with the Frenchman
Frederic Passy.

8. BATTLE OF SOLFERINO (24 JUNE 1859)
Henry Dunant saw the after effects of a
terrible battle. Thousands of wounded
soldiers were abandoned without care,
facing certain death.

9.  Publication of the book entitled A Memory of
Solferino.
 He proposed a remedy to the deficiencies of
army medical services by traning voluntary
relief workers in peacetime and securing for
them a ‘neutral’ status, even on battle field.

10. 1863
Publication of the Liber Code by Francis
Lieber, a German Lawyer and immigrant
to America, he was asked by the
President Abraham Lincoln to design
rules on the conduct of war for the use of
troops in the American Civil War.
He drafted “Instruction for the Government
of Armies of the United State in the Field” . It
was called General Orders No. 100. It later
came to be known as the “Liber Code”.

11. 1863
‘Committee of Five’ Constituted by
Henry Dunant together with General
Dufour, Gustave Moynier, Louis Appia
and Thedore Maunoir.

12. 1876
 Setting up of the International Committee of the Red
Cross.

13. 1864
Beginning of the IHL signing of the first
Geneva Convention

14. 1899
Signing of another Convention relating
to warfare at sea.

15. 1906
The provisions of the first convention
improved and supplemented.

16. 1907
Hague Peace Conferences the
treatment of prisoners of war.

17. 1929
Prisoner of War Code

18. 1949
Adoption of the four Geneva
Conventions

19. 1954
 The Hague Conventions for the Protection
of cultural Property in the event of Armed
Conflict.

20. 1972
 Convention on the Prohibition of the
development, production and stock piling of
Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin
weapons and on their Destruction

21. 1976
 Convention on use of Environmental
Modification Techniques

22. 1977
 Additional Protocol I & Protocol II

23. 1980
 CCW Convention

24. 1989
 Convention on the Rights of the child.

25. 1993
 Chemical Weapons Convention

26. 1995
 Blinding Laser Weapons Convention

27. 1996
 Revised Protocol on Prohibition or
Restrictions on the use of mines, Booby-
Traps and other Devices (Protocol II)
(revised)

28. 1997
 Anti Personnel Mines and their Destruction

29. 1998
 Rome Statute of the International Criminal
Court

30. 1999
 Second Protocol on Protection of Cultural
Property.

31. 2000
 Optional Protocol to the Convention on the
Rights of the Child

32. 2001
 Amendment to Article I of CCW.

33. 2003
 Protocol V on ERW (Explosive Remenants
of War).

34. 2005
 Adoption of Additional Distinction Emblem.

35. 2006
 Convention for the Protection of All Persons
from Enforced Disappearances.

36. 2008
 Cluster Muntions Convention

37. 2013
 Arms Trade Treaty

38.  ANY QUESTIONS?

39. CONCLUSION
 War is what happens when language fails.
•
• -Margaret Atwood

40. THANK YOU

41. @ COPYRIGHT
Major General
Nilendra Kumar