War Crimes

Awhile back in class we were talking about war crimes and we were deciding if certain events in WWII were war crimes. I decided to do some research on the definition war crimes and how the government came to terms in what a war crime is. Searching for a definition of war crimes, I found this definition:

war crime
n. Any of various crimes, such as genocide or the mistreatment of prisoners of war, committed during a war and considered in violation of the conventions of warfare.

There were many other definitions since there isn't one solid definition. However I believe that this definition didn't elaborate on what were the conventions of warfare. I found that there was a diplomatic conference which came together to discuss the idea of protecting the wounded and the sick on land. This was the First Geneva Convention and was signed by many, later on there were three others which were drawn. The Geneva Convention set rules to war on what couldn't be done and breaking these would be considered a war crime. The Geneva Convention came to be due to Henry Dunant who started the Red Cross. The red cross on a white background became an emblem that became known as neutral. As you can see we probably won't be able to find an exact definition that can explain what war crimes are, without going into specificity. The closest we have though are the Geneva Conventions which aid us into deciding what is and isn't a war crime.

"war crime." The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. 13 Apr. 2010. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/war crime>.

Geneva Convention. <>.