The Fourth Geneva Convention is the first convention dealing with the humanitarian protection of civilians in war. Similar to the amendment of a major law, Protocol II of the Geneva Conventions was introduced on 8 June 1977 together with Protocol I to strengthen the application of and protection given to civilians during war in the Geneva Convention. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Decades after the adoption of the Geneva Conventions and the end of World War II, people began to see an increase in the number of wars or rebellions occurring within a state. It is argued that intrastate conflicts or civil wars and armed conflicts after World War II are the deadliest. For example, a total of 600,000 people died in China alone in the 1980s, marking the decade with the highest number of deaths since the immediate post-war era. The implementation of Additional Protocol II had brought about a significant change to the entire Geneva Convention, of which it is the first real legal instrument for the protection of victims of non-international armed conflicts. This means that the initial Geneva Conventions for the protection of civilians in international conflicts or wars between States now extend to the protection of civilians in a conflict occurring within a State or known as an intra-state war. Additional Protocol II consisted of 28 articles and the articles were divided into 5 parts, each part dealing with different topics. Article 1(1) of Additional Protocol II deals with the scope of the protocol or known as the article which recognized non-international conflicts. It stated that the Protocol is applicable to all armed conflicts that are not covered by Article 1 of Additional Protocol I and to armed conflicts taking place in a State between its armed forces and rebel armed forces or between other organized armed groups in the State.[ 2] The effect of this article is that the Geneva Convention now recognizes the right of citizens of the State as civilians and their rights are protected when the State is involved in an intra-state war or when an armed group attempts to overthrow the state government. Civilians captured under Part I of Additional Protocol II will be entitled to the protection afforded by Part II of the Protocol dealing with humane treatment in armed conflict. In this part of the protocol, it is aimed at protecting those people who are not involved and have ceased to participate in conflicts or known as hors de combat, where they will be treated humanely in all circumstances. This can be seen in Article 4(2) of Protocol II where the article specifically prohibits violence against a person's life, health and physical or mental well-being. The article also protects civilians from other violent acts by prohibiting acts of murder and cruel treatment, terrorism, hostage-taking, slavery, outrages on personal dignity, collective punishment and looting. All these protections are known as the fundamental guarantees for all persons under Protocol II during war. These fundamental guarantees provided by the Conventions are known as an undeniable right that can be asserted at any time. It is also known as a person's inherent right and serves as a minimum standard during detention. This is provided for in Article 5 of Protocol II which mentions that persons detained during internal conflicts are guaranteed the same humane treatment specified by the Geneva Convention. For example, in the article it is stated that when a detained person is a woman, she must be kept in one place.