Modern armed forces and indeed individuals are employed in a wide range of operations that range from peacetime riot control to outright international armed conflict. Classifying these various scenarios to determine the applicable international law is rendered difficult by both lack of clarity inherent in the law or the political factors that tend to enter the decision making process. The Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols came into being to salvage the situation. This paper therefore discussed the Historical and legal basis of the Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols and concludes that beautiful as the provisions may be, their efficacy has been hampered by implementation problems.
