Article 23 The emblem of the red cross on a white ground and the words "Red Cross" or "Geneva Cross" shall not be used, either in time of peace or in time of war, except to protect or to indicate the medical units and establishments and the personnel and material protected by the Convention. Chapter VII - Application and Carrying out of the Convention. Article 24 The provisions of the present Convention are only binding upon the Contracting Powers in the case of war between two or more of them. These provisions shall cease to be binding from the moment when one of the belligerent Powers is not a party to the Convention. Article 25 The Commanders-in-chief of belligerent armies shall arrange the details for carrying out the preceding Articles, as well as for cases not provided for, in accordance with the instructions of their respective Governments and in conformity with the general principles of the present Convention. Article 26 The Signatory Governments will take the necessary measures to instruct their troops, especially the personnel protected, in the provisions of the present Convention, and to bring them to the notice of the civil population. Chapter VIII - Prevention of Abuses and Infractions Article 27 The Signatory Governments, in countries the legislation of which is not at present adequate for the purpose, undertake to adopt or to propose to their legislative bodies such measures as may be necessary to prevent at all times the employment of the emblem or the name of Red Cross or Geneva Cross by private individuals or by Societies other than those which are entitled to do so under the present Convention, and in particular for commercial purposes as a trade-mark or trading mark. The prohibition of the employment of the emblem or the names in question shall come into operation from the date fixed by each legislature, and at the latest five years after the present Convention comes into force. From that date it shall no longer be lawful to adopt a trade-mark or trading mark contrary to this prohibition. Article 28 The Signatory Governments also undertake to adopt, or to propose to their legislative bodies, should their military law be insufficient for the purpose, the measures necessary for the repression in time of war of individual acts of pillage and maltreatment of the wounded and sick of armies, as well as for the punishment, as an unlawful employment of military insignia, of the improper use of the Red Cross flag and armlet (brassard) by officers and soldiers or private individuals not protected by the present Convention. They shall communicate to one another, through the Swiss Federal Council, the provisions relative to these measures of repression at the latest within five years from the ratification of the present Convention. General Provisions Article 29 The present Convention shall be ratified as soon as possible. The ratifications shall be deposited at Berne. When each ratification is deposited a procès-verbal shall be drawn up, and a copy thereof certified as correct shall be forwarded through the diplomatic channel to all the Contracting Powers. Article 30 The present Convention shall come into force for each Power six months after the date of the deposit of its ratification. Article 31 The present Convention, duly ratified, shall replace the Convention of the 22nd August, 1864, in relations between the Contracting States. The Convention of 1864 remains in force between such of the parties who signed it who may not likewise ratify the present Convention. Article 32 The present Convention may be signed until the 31st December next by the Powers represented at the Conference which was opened at Geneva on the 11th June, 1906, as also by the Powers, not represented at that Conference, which signed the Convention of 1864. Such of the aforesaid Powers as shall not have signed the present Convention by the 31st December, 1906, shall remain free to accede to it subsequently. They shall notify their accession by means of a written communication addressed to the Swiss Federal Council, and communicated by the latter to all the Contracting Powers. but Other Powers may apply to accede in the same manner, their request shall only take effect if within a period of one year from the notification of it to the Federal Council no objection to it reaches the Council from any of the Contracting Powers. Article 33 Each of the Contracting Powers shall be at liberty to denounce the present Convention. The denunciation shall not take effect until one year after the written notification of it has reached the Swiss Federal Council. The Council shall immediately communicate the notification to all the other Contracting Parties. The denunciation shall only affect the Power which has notified it. In faith whereof the Plenipotentiaries have signed the present Convention and have affixed thereto their seals. Done at Geneva the 6th July, 1906, in a single copy, which shall be deposited in the archives of the Swiss Confederation, and of which copies certified as correct shall be forwarded to the Contracting Powers through the diplomatic channel. NOTE. This Convention was preceded by a much shorter and less elaborate one in 1864. The experience gained in several great wars convinced the leading powers that changes and additions were necessary. A conference of representatives from thirty-five states met at Geneva in 1906, and the result of their deliberations is the foregoing Convention, which has been ratified by a majority of the powers who negotiated it. Those states who were parties to the original Convention of 1864 and have not accepted that of 1906, are still bound by the former in their wars with one another. 6. The Hague Convention of 1907 for the Adaptation of the Principles of the Geneva Convention to Maritime War Article 1 Military hospital-ships, that is to say, ships constructed or adapted by States for the particular and sole purpose of aiding the sick, wounded, and shipwrecked, the names of which have been communicated to the belligerent Powers at the commencement or during the course of hostilities, and in any case before they are employed, shall be respected, and may not be captured while hostilities last. Such ships, moreover, are not on the same footing as warships as regards their stay in a neutral port. Article 2 Hospital-ships, equipped wholly or in part at the expense of private individuals or officially recognized relief societies, shall likewise be respected and exempt from capture, if the belligerent Power to which they belong has given them an official commission and has notified their names to the hostile Power at the commencement of or during hostilities, and in any case before they are employed. Such ships must be provided with a certificate from the proper authorities declaring that the vessels have been under their control while fitting out and on final departure. Article 3 Hospital-ships, equipped wholly or in part at the expense of private individuals or officially recognized societies of neutral countries, shall be respected and exempt from capture, on condition that they are placed under the orders of one of the belligerents, with the previous consent of their own Government and with the authorization of the belligerent himself, and on condition also that the latter has notified their name to his adversary at the commencement of or during hostilities, and in any case, before they are employed. Article 4 The ships mentioned in Articles 1, 2, and 3 shall afford relief and assistance to the wounded, sick, and shipwrecked of the belligerents without distinction of nationality. The Governments undertake not to use these ships for any military purpose. Such vessels must in no wise hamper the movements of the combatants. During and after an engagement they will act at their own risk and peril. The belligerents shall have the right to control and search them; they may refuse to help them, order them off, make them take a certain course, and put a Commissioner on board; they may even detain them, if the situation is such as to require it. The belligerents shall, as far as possible, enter in the log of the hospital-ships the orders which they give them. Article 5 Military hospital-ships shall be distinguished by being painted white outside, with a horizontal band of green about a metre and a half in breadth. The ships mentioned in Articles 2 and 3 shall be distinguished |