CNSNews.com - American Red Cross Petitions Public Schools to Teach Geneva Conventions

CNSNews.com - American Red Cross Petitions Public Schools to Teach Geneva Conventions

(CNSNews.com) – Because the United States plays an important role in foreign affairs, international humanitarian law should be taught in public schools to ensure that Americans “continue to understand and observe the limits of armed conflict,” the American Red Cross says.

The American Red Cross has launched an online petition drive, urging schools to teach students about the Geneva Conventions.



To help teachers do that, the Red Cross has developed a “non-partisan” program called Exploring Humanitarian Law, which “presents multiple viewpoints.” (See curriculum)

According to the Red Cross Web site, “Students learn that there are no easy answers in war and that armed conflict inevitably raises serious dilemmas and trade-offs.” It adds that the program will help students become “more civically engaged and stewards of conflict resolution.”

The Exploring Humanitarian Law project was initiated by the ICRC in late 1998 with the aim of designing core learning materials for global use among young people in the 13-18 age range. According to the American Red Cross, teachers who have used the program report that students have been engaged and inspired.

The American Red Cross petition, addressed to "School District Superintendents," reads as follows:

"We should educate students about international humanitarian law, conveying the importance of the laws and principles of the Geneva Conventions.

Adopted by 194 countries, the Geneva Conventions safeguard those who do not take part in fighting and those that can no longer fight – wounded, civilians, and prisoners of war. They protect American and foreign citizens alike.

We should incorporate a non-partisan secondary school curriculum that explains the details of humanitarian law. This curriculum will emphasize that there are no easy answers in war and that armed conflict inevitably raises serious dilemmas and trade-offs.

We ask that you integrate the Exploring Humanitarian Law program into required secondary school curriculum to ensure that students across the nation may develop a better understanding of our world."

Red Cross raps U.S.

In 2003, The International Committee of the Red Cross called it “unacceptable” for the U.S. to detain enemy combatants at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, without charging them or bringing them to trial.

In November 2004, The New York Times reported that the International Committee of the Red Cross found that the handling of prisoners detained and interrogated at Guantanamo Bay amounted to torture. The U.S. government “sharply rejected” the charges contained in that confidential report, the newspaper said.

The ICRC also reported on what it called “systematic abuses” by U.S. military personnel at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad.

Peace education

A paper posted on the International Committee of the Red Cross Web site notes that education in humanitarian law “is not explicitly about peace, tolerance, mutual understanding, violence prevention or conflict resolution,” but the attitudes involved in any such exploration “would necessarily have links with what is broadly referred to as 'peace education.'"

The International Committee of the Red Cross says that peace education – based on a UNICEF definition --“is clearly made up of three more or less distinct components: (i) conflict prevention, (ii) conflict resolution, and (iii) creating conditions conducive to peace.

“Although education for young people in humanitarian law is not explicitly about conflict prevention, and even less about conflict resolution, it definitely helps to create conditions conducive to peace,” the paper says.

“In situations of acute social and political tension, as for example in post-conflict and social reconstruction environments, education in humanitarian law may have a potential indirect pacifying effect.”

Limiting the barbarity of war

According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols are international treaties that contain rules "limiting the barbarity of war."

The ICRC has summarized the basic rules on its Web site, as follows:

The parties to a conflict must at all times distinguish between the civilian population and combatants in order to spare the civilian population and civilian property. Neither the civilian population as a whole nor individual civilians may be attacked.

Attacks must solely against military objectives.

It is forbidden to kill or wound an adversary who surrenders for who can no longer take part in the fighting.

It is forbidden to use weapons or methods of warfare that are likely to cause unnecessary losses or excessive suffering.

The wounded and sick must be collected and cared for by the party to the conflict which has them in its power. Medical personnel and medical establishments, transports and equipment must be spared.

The red cross or red crescent on a white background is the distinctive sign indicating that such persons and objects must be respected.

Captured combatants and civilians who find themselves under the authority of the adverse party are entitled to respect for their lives, their dignity, their personal rights and their political, religious and other convictions. They must be protected against all acts of violence or reprisal. They are entitled to exchange news with their families and receive aid. They must enjoy basic judicial guarantees.