Page 124 - MDSL Final

MARITIME DOCTRINE OF SRI LANKA
convention provided for the respect and protection of ambulances,
military hospitals and wounded and sick military personnel; for local
inhabitants to come to the relief of the wounded; for the ‘wounded or
sick combatants to whatever nation they may belong to be collected and

cared for’; and for the sign of the Red Cross on the white background as
a distinctive emblem that has become internationally known.

Since the middle of the last century the tendency has been to have
written laws in the form of treaties between States. Most customary
law has now been incorporated into these treaties. The first Geneva
Convention of 1864 was an important international step. It paved the
way for other international agreements. The most important of those in
force today are the Hague Rules, the 1949 Geneva Conventions and the
1977 Geneva Protocols.

The Law of Armed Conflict

The Law of Armed Conflict has traditionally dealt with conflicts between
States and has not concerned itself to any great degree with internal
armed conflicts. That situation is now changing and the law relating
to internal armed conflicts is to be found in Chapter 10 of the Geneva
Convention 1949. Except in so far as otherwise specified, the rest of this
publication is concerned with the International Law of Armed Conflict
between States. 58

Due to the consistent failure of countries to acknowledge the existence
of a state of war, the term ‘armed conflict’ has been adopted in
contemporary treaties to ensure that the terms are applicable even
where one party does not recognise a state of war. Thus the Law of
Armed Conflict will apply in the following circumstances:

• A declared war or any other armed conflict between two or
more States; or,
• Occupation of the territory of one State by another; or
• Armed conflicts in which peoples are fighting against colonial
domination and alien occupation and against racist regimes in
the exercises of their right of self-determination.

106 To Nurture a Stable Environment at Sea