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Convention (II) for the Amelioration of the Condition of Wounded, Sick and Shipwrecked Members of Armed Forces at Sea. Geneva, 12 August 1949.

Commentary - Art. 55. Final provisions

ARTICLE 55

. -- SIGNATURE

Powers which, under the present provision, may not sign the Convention because they were not represented at the Diplomatic Conference and are not parties to the Tenth Hague Convention of 1907 or to the Geneva Conventions of 1864, 1906 and 1929, may nevertheless accede to it.

The date of February 12, 1950 (that is to say, six months from August 12, 1949, the date of signature) is the same in the case of all four Conventions (1).

The importance of signature, which marks the agreement of the plenipotentiaries to a text that cannot thereafter be altered, must not be disregarded; States are not bound by the Convention, however, until they have ratified it, and ratification is the subject of the next Article

It should also be mentioned that some delegations made reservations at the time of signature (2).

* (1) [(2) p.274] Eighteen States signed the Convention on

August 12, 1949, twenty-seven did so on December 8 of the

same year at a ceremony organized for the purpose by the

Swiss Federal Council, and sixteen did so later, within

the time-limit laid down;

(2) [(3) p.274] For the text of the reservations, see ' Final

Record of the Diplomatic Conference of Geneva of 1949 ',

Vol. I, pp. 342-357. Such reservations do not remain in

force, however, unless they are confirmed when the

instrument of ratification is deposited;