Common article 1 of the 1949 Geneva conventions

Schmitt, M. N. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7373-9557 and Watts, S. (2024) Common article 1 of the 1949 Geneva conventions. Articles of War.

Abstract/Summary

On March 1, Nicaragua instituted proceedings against Germany before the International Court of Justice (Alleged Breaches of Certain International Obligations in respect of the Occupied Palestinian Territory). In its Application, Nicaragua alleges that Germany has contributed to Israel’s violation of the Genocide Convention, breached peremptory norms of general international law by aiding and assisting apartheid and denying the Palestinian people’s right of self-determination, and aided or assisted Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine and its attack on Gaza. As alleged, Germany did so by providing Israel with political, financial, and military support. This post addresses the law underlying a fourth allegation leveled by Nicaragua, that Germany “has failed to comply with its obligations under international humanitarian law, derived both from the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and its Protocols of 1977 and from the intransgressible principles of international humanitarian law, by not respecting its obligations to ensure respect for these fundamental norms in all circumstances” (Application, para. 3). In its Application, Nicaragua renewed a charge it made directly to Germany in a February note verbale, that, “with full knowledge of [Israel’s] wrongful acts,” Germany provided “aid and assistance to Israel in particular weapons that would or could be used in the commission of . . . grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, attacks directed against civilian objects or civilians protected as such, or other war crimes” (Application, para. 31).