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Podcast: ICRC Humanitarian Law and Policy Blog
Episode: Codifying IHL before Lieber and Dunant: The 1820 treaty for the regularization of war
Description: Before the Lieber Code and Geneva Conventions came a treaty between the Spanish Empire and Simon Bolivar’s revolutionary forces in Colombia and Venezuela. The 1820 Treaty for the Regularization of War aimed at reducing the unnecessary suffering of both soldiers and civilians affected by armed conflict and occupation across a broader spectrum than any previous international agreements. However, despite the significance of such a development in international law, the treaty fell into relative obscurity after the Colombian War of Independence until being slowly reintroduced throughout the 20th century.
In this post, graduate student Jacob Coffelt from the University of Padua ex...