A Response to John C. Yoo, “The Status of Soldiers and Terrorists under the Geneva Conventions”

The central theme of John C. Yoo's article, ‘The Status of Soldiers and Terrorists under the Geneva Convention’, 1 is that the American government is legally correct in denying the Taliban and al Qaeda detainees protection under the relevant Geneva Conventions and that the rights contained in these conventions are designed for professional soldiers who are “duty-bound to fight for their nation—not for criminals, and certainly not for terrorists”. 2 The author, at the beginning, makes scant reference to the so-called White House Fact Sheet, dated 7 February 2002, which became the official policy towards these detainees. It should be borne in mind that Mr Yoo, in an oficial governmental position at that time, bears, to say the least, an important intellectual responsibility for this policy. 3 I would like to comment on the three main issues put forward in the article: the general application of the Geneva Conventions, the concept of unlawful combatant and the problems raised in connection with the application of Article 17 of the Third Geneva Convention

Combatant · Convention · Duty · Geneva Conventions · Government (linguistics · Human rights · International humanitarian law · Political science · Sociology · Terrorism · Theme (computing · International Law and Aviation · International Law and Human Rights · Torture, Ethics, and Law · Law · Philosophy