The Conventions were the results of efforts by Henry Dunant, who was motivated by the horrors of war he witnessed at the Battle of Solferino in 1859. In 1977 and 2005 three separate amendments were made part of the Geneva Conventions.
As per article 49, 50, 129 and 146 of the Geneva Conventions I, II, III and IV, respectively, all signatory states are required to enact sufficient national laws that make grave violations of the Geneva Conventions a punishable criminal offense.
All of these conventions were revised and expanded in 1949.
First Geneva Convention"for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armed Forces in the Field" (first adopted in 1864, last revision in 1949)
Second Geneva Convention"for the Amelioration of the Condition of Wounded, Sick and Shipwrecked Members of Armed Forces at Sea" (first adopted in 1906)
In addition, there are three additional amendment protocols to the Geneva Conventions:
Protocol I (1977): Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts. As of 12 January2007 it had been ratified by 167 countries.
Protocol II (1977): Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts. As of 12 January2007 it had been ratified by 163 countries.
Protocol III (2005): Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August1949, and relating to the Adoption of an Additional Distinctive Emblem. As of June 2007 it had been ratified by 17 countries and signed but not yet ratified by an additional 68 countries.
All four conventions were last revised and ratified in 1949, based on previous revisions and partly on some of the 1907 Hague Conventions; the whole set is referred to as the "Geneva Conventions of 1949" or simply the "Geneva Conventions". Later conferences have added provisions prohibiting certain methods of warfare and addressing issues of civil wars. Nearly all 200 countries of the world are "signatory" nations, in that they have ratified these conventions.
Clara Barton was instrumental in campaigning for the ratification of the First Geneva Convention by the United States; the U.S. signed in 1882. By the Fourth Geneva Convention some 47 nations had ratified the agreements.
