Citation

Binns C, Low WY. Asia Pac. J. Public Health 2022; 34(5): 481-482.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, Asia-Pacific Academic Consortium for Public Health, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/10105395221109066

PMID

35770628

Abstract

Warfare between rival tribes has been a part of human existence since the beginning of history. With each generation, new weapons have been developed and armies have become more effective at killing or neutralizing the other side. In times past, warfare was the one way that countries were able to become richer, by capturing the gold and treasures of a rival. This is unnecessary today as science and engineering provide the means to a better life without conflict. Despite this, the pursuit of someone else's resources is still a major cause of wars with access to petroleum, minerals, water, land, and other resources being constant sources of conflict. There are of course many other causes of warfare and, just like the discussion of the causation of long-term diseases in epidemiology, wars can have multiple contributing causes, making the reasons difficult to unravel. In ancient times, warfare resulted in the massacre or enslavement of the defeated. Regrettably this is still occurring.

Beginning in the mid-19th century, a series of international conventions sought to regulate warfare and make it more humanitarian as if miming or killing a fellow human could ever be called humanitarian. The Geneva Conventions have been signed by 196 world states. The International Committee of the Red Cross is the custodian of the Geneva Treaties and provides guidance on their application. The International Humanitarian Law is now a very extensive body of statues. The International Court of Justice, in The Hague, is a court of the United Nations and can rule on breaches of the laws of warfare...

Language: en

Keywords

Humans; *Violence; *Public Health