Protocol II to the Geneva Conventions is recorded in this encyclopedia from the source named below.
Overview
Protocol II (also Additional Protocol II or AP II) is a 1977 amendment or optional protocol to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 relating to the protection of victims of non-international armed conflicts. It defines certain international laws that strive to provide better protection for victims of internal armed conflicts that take place within the borders of a single country. The scope of these laws is more limited than those of the rest of the Geneva Conventions out of respect for sovereign rights and duties of national governments. As of July 2025, the Protocol had been ratified by 170 countries, with the United States, India, Pakistan, Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Israel being notable exceptions. However, the United States, Iran, and Pakistan signed it on 12 December 1977, which signifies an intention to work towards ratifying it. The Iranian signature was given prior to the 1979 Iranian Revolution. According to legal scholar and human rights attorney Noura Erakat, the Israeli non-ratification of Protocol I and II to the Geneva Conventions allows the Israeli government to recognize the Israeli-Palestinian conflict ''neither as a civil war ('non-international armed conflict,' NIAC) nor a war against a liberation movement ('international armed conflict,' IAC).'' This way, force used by Palestinian factions can be deemed illegal and illegitimate. Some, but not all, of the provisions of the 1977 Additional Protocol II, “have obtained recognition as customary law.”
Source and reuse
The descriptive text above is drawn from the English-language encyclopedia article Protocol II to the Geneva Conventions, reused under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike licence and attributed in the sources block on this page. Figures in the infobox come from Wikidata and carry that project's own provenance; they should be checked against the cited source before being relied on.
Editorial note
This record is a sourced summary, not original research. Where the underlying material is silent on a point, this article is silent too. Last reviewed 2026-09-23.