The rules of war

Overview
People hve tryed to make war less indiscriminate, horrific and stupid over the years. Both the Vietnam War, 1950–1953 Korean War and the Biafra War would see these laws ruptures all the time. Here are a list of 10 vitaly important rule making treties.

First Geneva Convention
The original ten articles of the 1864 treaty have been expanded to the current 64 articles. This lengthy treaty protects soldiers that are hors de combat (out of the battle due to sickness or injury), as well as medical and religious personnel, and civilians in the zone of battle. For a detailed discussion of each article of the treaty, see the original text and the commentary. There are currently 196 countries party to the 1949 Geneva Conventions, including this first treaty but also including the other three.
 * Among its principal provisions:
 * Article 12 mandates that wounded and sick soldiers who are out of the battle should be humanely treated, and in particular should not be killed, injured, tortured, or subjected to biological experimentation. This article is the keystone of the treaty, and defines the principles from which most of the treaty is derived, including the obligation to respect medical units and establishments (Chapter III), the personnel entrusted with the care of the wounded (Chapter IV), buildings and material (Chapter V), medical transports (Chapter VI), and the protective sign (Chapter VII).
 * Article 15 mandates that wounded and sick soldiers should be collected, cared for, and protected, though they may also become prisoners of war.
 * Article 16 mandates that parties to the conflict should record the identity of the dead and wounded, and transmit this information to the opposing party.
 * Article 9 allows the International Red Cross "or any other impartial humanitarian organization" to provide protection and relief of wounded and sick soldiers, as well as medical and religious personnel.

1977 Protocol I of the Geneva Convention
Perfidy is specifically prohibited under the 1977 Protocol I Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, which states:

Article 37. – Prohibition of perfidy

 * 1. It is prohibited to kill, injure or capture an adversary by resort to perfidy. Acts inviting the confidence of an adversary to lead him to believe that he is entitled to, or is obliged to accord, protection under the rules of international law applicable in armed conflict, with intent to betray that confidence, shall constitute perfidy. The following acts are examples of perfidy:
 * 1) *(a) The feigning of an intent to negotiate under a flag of truce or of a surrender;
 * 2) *(b) The feigning of an incapacitation by wounds or sickness;
 * 3) *(c) The feigning of civilian, non-combatant status; and
 * 4) *(d) The feigning of protected status by the use of signs, emblems or uniforms of the United Nations or of neutral or other States not Parties to the conflict.
 * 2. Ruses of war are not prohibited. Such ruses are acts which are intended to mislead an adversary or to induce him to act recklessly but which infringe no rule of international law applicable in armed conflict and which are not perfidious because they do not invite the confidence of an adversary with respect to protection under that law. The following are examples of such ruses: the use of camouflage, decoys, mock operations and misinformation.

Article 38. – Recognized emblems

 * 1. It is prohibited to make improper use of the distinctive emblem of the red cross, red crescent or red lion and sun or of other emblems, signs or signals provided for by the Conventions or by this Protocol. It is also prohibited to misuse deliberately in an armed conflict other internationally recognized protective emblems, signs or signals, including the flag of truce, and the protective emblem of cultural property.
 * 2. It is prohibited to make use of the distinctive emblem of the United Nations, except as authorized by that Organization.

Article 39. – Emblems of nationality

 * 1. It is prohibited to make use in an armed conflict of the flags or military emblems, insignia or uniforms of neutral or other States not Parties to the conflict.
 * 2. It is prohibited to make use of the flags or military emblems, insignia or uniforms of adverse Parties while engaging in attacks or to shield, favour, protect or impede military operations.
 * 3. Nothing in this Article or in Article 37, paragraph 1 ( d ), shall affect the existing generally recognized rules of international law applicable to espionage or to the use of flags in the conduct of armed conflict at sea.

Civil aircraft in airforce markings (American national law).
Read Title 49, Part 45 available on the FAA web site at http:www.faa.gov under regulations. You can paint the civil aircraft any way you want, including military colours, but the N-number has to be readable from 500 feet and it has to be contrasting. I have provided some information to assist you. Most of the information about N-numbers can be found in AC 45-2C again available on the FAA site.

Hague Convention of 1899
The peace conference was proposed on 24 August 1898 by Russian Tsar Nicholas II. Nicholas and Count Mikhail Nikolayevich Muravyov, his foreign minister, were instrumental in initiating the conference. The conference opened on 18 May 1899, the Tsar's birthday. The treaties, declarations, and final act of the conference were signed on 29 July of that year, and they entered into force on 4 September 1900. What is referred to as the Hague Convention of 1899 consisted of three main treaties and three additional declarations: This convention included the creation of the Permanent Court of Arbitration, which exists to this day. The section was ratified by all major powers, including the United States, the UK, Austria-Hungary, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Russia, Japan, and China. This voluminous convention contains the laws to be used in all wars on land between signatories. It specifies the treatment of prisoners of war, includes the provisions of the Geneva Convention of 1864 for the treatment of the wounded, and forbids the use of poisons, the killing of enemy combatants who have surrendered, looting of a town or place, and the attack or bombardment of undefended towns or habitations. Inhabitants of occupied territories may not be forced into military service against their own country and collective punishment is forbidden. The section was ratified by all major powers mentioned above. This convention provides for the protection of marked hospital ships and requires them to treat the wounded and shipwrecked sailors of all belligerent parties. It too was ratified by all major powers. This declaration provides that, for a period of five years, in any war between signatory powers, no projectiles or explosives would be launched from balloons, "or by other new methods of a similar nature." The declaration was ratified by all the major powers mentioned above, except the United Kingdom and the United States. This declaration states that, in any war between signatory powers, the parties will abstain from using projectiles "the sole object of which is the diffusion of asphyxiating or deleterious gases." Ratified by all major powers, except the United States.
 * (I): Convention for the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes.
 * (II): Convention with respect to the Laws and Customs of War on Land
 * (III): Convention for the Adaptation to Maritime Warfare of the Principles of the Geneva Convention of 22 August 1864
 * (IV,1): Declaration concerning the Prohibition of the Discharge of Projectiles and Explosives from Balloons or by Other New Analogous Methods
 * (IV,2): Declaration concerning the Prohibition of the Use of Projectiles with the Sole Object to Spread Asphyxiating Poisonous Gases
 * (IV,3): Declaration concerning the Prohibition of the Use of Bullets which can Easily Expand or Change their Form inside the Human Body such as Bullets with a Hard Covering which does not Completely Cover the Core, or containing Indentations. This declaration states that, in any war between signatory powers, the parties will abstain from using "bullets which expand or flatten easily in the human body." This directly banned soft-point bullets (which had a partial metal jacket and an exposed tip) and "cross-tipped" bullets (which had a cross-shaped incision in their tip to aid in expansion, nicknamed "Dum Dums" from the Dum Dum Arsenal in India). It was ratified by all major powers, except the United States.

Hague Convention of 1907
(I): Convention for the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes[16] This convention confirms and expands on Convention (I) of 1899. As of 2014, this convention is in force for 99 states,[17] and 115 states have ratified one or both of the 1907 Convention (I) and the 1899 Convention (I), which together are the founding documents of the Permanent Court of Arbitration.[18] (II): Convention respecting the Limitation of the Employment of Force for Recovery of Contract Debts[19] (III): Convention relative to the Opening of Hostilities[20] This convention sets out the accepted procedure for a state making a declaration of war. (IV): Convention respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land This convention confirms, with minor modifications, the provisions of Convention (II) of 1899. All major powers ratified it.[21] (V): Convention relative to the Rights and Duties of Neutral Powers and Persons in case of War on Land[22] (VI): Convention relative to the Legal Position of Enemy Merchant Ships at the Start of Hostilities[23] (VII): Convention relative to the Conversion of Merchant Ships into War-ships[24] (VIII): Convention relative to the Laying of Automatic Submarine Contact Mines[25] (IX): Convention concerning Bombardment by Naval Forces in Time of War[26] (X): Convention for the Adaptation to Maritime Warfare of the Principles of the Geneva Convention (of 6 July 1906) This convention updated Convention (III) of 1899 to reflect the amendments that had been made to the 1864 Geneva Convention. Convention (X) was ratified by all major states except the United Kingdom.[27] It was subsequently superseded by Second Geneva Convention. (XI): Convention relative to Certain Restrictions with regard to the Exercise of the Right of Capture in Naval War[28] (XII): Convention relative to the Establishment of an International Prize Court This convention would have established the International Prize Court for the resolution of conflicting claims relating to captured ships during wartime. It is the one convention that never came into force. It was ratified only by Nicaragua.[29] (XIII): Convention concerning the Rights and Duties of Neutral Powers in Naval War[30] (XIV): Declaration Prohibiting the Discharge of Projectiles and Explosives from Balloons This declaration extended the provisions of Declaration (IV,1) of 1899 to the close of the planned Third Peace Conference (which never took place). Among the major powers, this was ratified only by China, United Kingdom, and the United States.[31]

Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons
The CCWC consist of a set of additional protocols first formulated on October 10, 1980, in Geneva and entered into force on December 2, 1983. As of the end of May 2016, there are 123 state parties to the convention. Some of those countries have only adopted some of the five protocols, with two being the minimum required to be considered a party.
 * The convention has five protocols:
 * Protocol I restricts weapons with non-detectable fragments
 * Protocol II restricts landmines, booby traps
 * Protocol III restricts incendiary weapons
 * Protocol IV restricts blinding laser weapons (adopted on October 13, 1995, in Vienna)
 * Protocol V sets out obligations and best practice for the clearance of explosive remnants of war, adopted on November 28, 2003, in Geneva

International Court of Justice advisory opinion on the Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons
The court undertook seven separate votes, all of which were passed:[14]

The court decided to comply with the request for an advisory opinion;[15] The court replied that "There is in neither customary nor conventional international law any specific authorization of the threat or use of nuclear weapons";[16] The court replied that "There is in neither customary nor conventional international law any comprehensive and universal prohibition of the threat or use of nuclear weapons as such";[17] The court replied that "A threat or use of force by means of nuclear weapons that is contrary to Article 2, paragraph 4, of the United Nations Charter and that fails to meet all the requirements of Article 51, is unlawful";[18] The court replied that "A threat or use of nuclear weapons should also be compatible with the requirements of the international law applicable in armed conflict, particularly those of the principles and rules of humanitarian law, as well as with specific obligations under treaties and other undertakings which expressly deal with nuclear weapons"[19] The court replied that "the threat or use of nuclear weapons would generally be contrary to the rules of international law applicable in armed conflict, and in particular the principles and rules of humanitarian law; However, in view of the current state of international law, and of the elements of fact at its disposal, the Court cannot conclude definitively whether the threat or use of nuclear weapons would be lawful or unlawful in an extreme circumstance of self-defence, in which the very survival of a State would be at stake"[20] The court replied that "There exists an obligation to pursue in good faith and bring to a conclusion negotiations leading to nuclear disarmament in all its aspects under strict and effective international control".[21]

Also see

 * 1) UN