The Geneva drafts for revision of the Geneva Convention of 22 August 1864

Abstract of the article "Les projets genevois de révision de la Convention de Genève du 22 août 1864---1868-1898"

Only three years after the 1864 Convention — historically the “first” Geneva Convention — was adopted, proposals were made to amend the text by introducing provisions on the National Red Cross Societies. However, the result of this procedure — the 1868 Additional Articles — was never ratified by any of the parties to the original treaty. In the years that followed, no less than five proposals were circulated by the ICRC, none of which led to new treaty provisions until, in 1906, the States adopted a new Convention to replace the original 1864 treaty. Although the proposed texts originated in Geneva — drafted by General Dufour and Gustave Moynier — the ICRC remained sceptical about the wisdom of amending the original Convention. The fear of losing what had been gained in 1864 was stronger than the expectation that new progress would be made in protecting war victims. In an annex to this article the various drafts are published for the first time.