The 1874 Diplomatic Conference and the Hague Peace Conferences of 1899 and 1907 constitute important milestones Modern international humanitarian law is mainly embodied in the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 188 States Parties) and the two 1977 Protocols Additional to those Conventions 152 and 144 States Parties respectively), namely:

• Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in the Armed Forces in the Field

• Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of Wounded, Sick and Shipwrecked members of the Armed Forces at Sea

• Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War

• Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War

• Additional Protocol I relative to the Protection of victims of international armed conflicts

• Additional Protocol II relative to the Protection of victims of non-international armed conflicts

Significantly, common to all Geneva Conventions is article 3 which establishes minimum rules to be observed by each party to an internal armed conflict This article provides that persons taking no active part in the hostilities “shall in all circumstances be treated humanely, without adverse distinction” and “the wounded and sick shall be collected and cared for”.

Other humanitarian law instruments deal with topics as diverse as the protection of cultural property in the event of armed conflict, the prohibition of biological and chemical weapons and of certain conventional weapons which may be deemed to be excessively injurious or to have indiscriminate effects.

Recent examples of humanitarian law are the 1995 Protocol on Blinding Laser Weapons and the 1997 Convention on the Prohibition of Anti Personnel Mines, Ottawa Treaty, which entered into force on 1 March 1999.