ABSTRACT

The Convention shall also apply to all cases of partial or total occupation of the territory of a High Contracting Party, even if the said occupation meets with no armed resistance. As regards the Geneva Conventions, it was self-evident that they applied in time of war. The Convention becomes applicable as from the actual opening of hostilities. In the First World War, Monetenegro was not a Party to the Geneva Convention and, in the strict terms of the law, this meant there could be no application of the Convention in the world conflict. 'In practice any Contracting Power in conflict with a non-Contracting Power will begin by complying with the provisions of the Convention pending the adverse Party's declaration. The version adopted in the 1954 Convention can therefore be interpreted as a backward step according to which the signatories were bound by the Convention only from the moment that the non-signatory Party gave its formal acceptance.