Hague Conventions

Hague Conventions, international agreements signed in 1899 and 1907 which codified the conduct of war including the prohibition on acquiring loot. Unlike the Geneva Conventions of 1864 and 1906, which dealt with the treatment of the sick and wounded on land, they dealt primarily with the methods of waging war, with the outlawing of certain weapons, the qualifications of belligerents, and the rights and duties of neutrals. The 1899 Conventions, agreed by 26 countries, specifically banned the employment of expanding bullets—called ‘dum-dum’ bullets after the Indian factory which made them for the British Indian Army—and of asphyxiating gases; gave some protection to civilian populations; extended the 1864 Geneva Convention to those fighting at sea; and one included articles on the treatment of prisoners-of-war who were not sick or wounded.

The 1899 Conventions were updated in 1907 and new ones were adopted. These included: the need to declare war so that there was ‘previous and explicit warning’ or ‘an ultimatum with a conditional declaration’; the status of merchant ships of belligerent powers when war was declared; and the conversion of merchantmen into warships. One also prohibited the discharge of projectiles and explosives from balloons.

That part of the Hague Convention which covered the treatment of prisoners-of-war was eventually replaced by the 1929 Geneva Convention.