The Fourth Geneva Convention is the first convention that deals with the humanitarian protection of civilians in the event of war. Similar to the amendment of a principal law, Protocol II of the Geneva Conventions was introduced on June 8, 1977 along with Protocol I to strengthen the enforcement and protection afforded to civilians during wars under the Geneva Convention. Geneva. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Decades after the adoption of the Geneva Conventions and the end of World War II, people began to witness an increase in the number of wars or rebels within a state. It is argued that intra-state conflicts or civil wars and armed conflicts after World War II are the deadliest. For example, a total of 600,000 people died in China alone in the 1980s, marking the deadliest decade since the immediate post-war period. The implementation of Additional Protocol II brought a significant change to the set of Geneva Conventions, where it is the first real legal instrument for the protection of victims of non-international armed conflicts. This means that the early Geneva Conventions for the protection of civilians in international conflicts or wars between states now extended to the protection of civilians in a conflict occurring within a state or known as war intrastate. Additional Protocol II was composed of 28 articles. and the articles were divided into 5 parts each of which covered different topics. Article 1(1) of Additional Protocol II deals with the scope of the protocol or known as the article recognizing non-international conflicts. It declared that the Protocol is applicable to all armed conflicts which are not covered by Article 1 of Additional Protocol I and to armed conflicts which take place in a State between its armed forces and rebel armed forces or between other organized armed groups in the State. 2] The effect of this article is that the Geneva Convention now recognizes the right of citizens of the State as civilians and that their rights are protected when the State is involved in an intra-state war or when a armed group is trying to overthrow the state government. Civilians covered by Part I of Additional Protocol II will be entitled to the protections guaranteed by Part II of the Protocol, which deals with human treatment in armed conflicts. Under this part of the protocol, it was about protecting people who are not participating and have ceased to participate in conflicts or who are said to be hors de combat, where they will be treated humanely in all circumstances. This can be seen in Article 4(2) of Protocol II, where the article specifically prohibits violence against the life, health and physical or mental well-being of the person. The article also protects civilians from other acts of violence by prohibiting acts of murder and cruel treatment, terrorism, hostage-taking, slavery, outrages upon personal dignity, collective punishment and looting. All of these protections are known as the fundamental guarantees for all people under Protocol II during war. This fundamental guarantee provided by the Conventions is known as an undeniable right which can be claimed at any time. It is also known as an inherent human right and is a minimum standard during detention. This is provided for by Article 5 of Protocol II, which mentions that persons detained during internal conflicts benefit from the guarantee of the same human treatment.