The
Geneva Conventions comprise four
treaties, and three additional
protocols, that establish the standards of
international law for the
humanitarian treatment of
war. The singular term
Geneva Convention usually denotes the agreements of 1949, negotiated in the aftermath of the
Second World War (1939–45), which updated the terms of the first three treaties (1864, 1906, 1929), and added a fourth. The Geneva Conventions extensively defined the basic rights of wartime prisoners (
civilians and
military personnel); established protections for the wounded; and established protections for the civilians in and around a war-zone. The treaties of 1949 were ratified, in whole or with
reservations,
by 196 countries. Moreover, the Geneva Convention also defines the rights and protections afforded to
non-combatants, yet, because the Geneva Conventions are about people in war, the articles do not address
warfare proper—the use of
weapons of war—which is the subject of the
Hague Conventions (First Hague Conference, 1899; Second Hague Conference 1907), and the
bio-
chemical warfare Geneva Protocol (Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare, 1925).