ABSTRACT
The four Geneva Conventions of 1949 for the protection of war victims open with an unusual provision: it is the undertaking of the contracting states 'to respect and to ensure respect for in all circumstances'. This chapter deals, at length, with the drafting history of common Article 1, the interpretation the ICRC placed upon it in its Commentary to the Conventions of 1949, and subsequent developments from the Teheran Human Rights Conference of 1968 to the adoption in 1977 of Protocol 1 additional to the 1949 Geneva Conventions and the ICRC Commentary thereto. It gives a brief impression of other uses or interpretations of the Article, by an interested party like the Palestinians, by an independent actor like the International Court of Justice, and by academics. The ICRC entrusted the task of writing the comments on Article 1 to its legal adviser, Frederic Siordet.
