The Historical Evolution of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) from Earliest Societies to Modern Age

International humanitarian law earlier known as the law of war is applied in the armed conflict to protect those who don`t take part in the hostilities or no longer taking part in the hostilities. Even in absence of any international document the earliest societies or communities would have followed some rules of war during conflict either as per the instructions of the community leader or customs or religions. The paper addresses the earlier scattered provisions of the law of war (LOW) or international humanitarian law (IHL) in various religious books, customs and practices. It then turns to the development of IHL by the codification of the rules of war in various international and national documents. This article also focuses on the significant development of IHL by adopting the four Geneva conventions (GCs) and its three additional protocols (AP) and most importantly progress and promotion of IHL by incorporating the laws of armed conflict in the national legislations.


International Humanitarian Law in the Earliest Societies
The history of IHL is not a new one. The laws of war are as old as war itself and war is as old as life on earth. Even the modern naturalists have identified that some rules are being practiced by animals also during the time of their combat.
For example, when the deer fights with other types of deer or two wolves or dogs fight, the one who knows that he is losing, he gives up the fighting or some time offers surrender by exposing his throat to the victor, who as a result abstains to bite him.
In the earliest societies, the victory was followed by massive massacre or unspeakable atrocities where the code of honor had completely prohibited surrendering and the worriers had to win or die. Even in that period also, the wounded soldiers were collected and cared for (Pictet, 1984).
The study of savage tribes existing in our own time gives some insight into the nature of primitive people at the dawn of society. In Papua, where such tribes would have maintained some rules such as warning in advance to the enemies, non-engaging into the war until both the parties are ready and suspending war for 15 days in case of death or serious injury of any soldier (Pictet, 1984: pp. 6-7).
The Sumerians treated war as a state governed by the law and it was started by a declaration of war and terminated by a peace treaty. The Code of Hammurabi by Hammurabi king of Babylon, (1728-1686 BC) ensured the protection of the weak from the oppressive hands of the rich and strong and made the provision of release of the hostages by ransom.
In the 7th century BC, King of the Persians, Cyrus I, ordered that the wounded soldiers would be treated and cared for like the own wounded soldiers.
The killing of a surrendered adversary was absolutely prohibited to kill under the Indian epic Mahabharata (c. 400BC) and the Laws of Manu as they were unable to fight. It also forbade using certain weapons such as poisoned or burning arrows and ensured the protection of enemy property and the status of the prisoners of war (Fleck & Bothe, 1999: p. 16).
The Greeks considered each one should have equal rights in the wars between the Greek city-states and in the war led by Alexander the Great who led the war against the Persians ensured respect for the life and personal dignity of war victims. The Romans also accorded the right to life to their prisoners of war (Gill & Fleck,p. 16

International Humanitarian Law in Islam
In the Holy Quran and Hadith many provisions of modern IHL have elaborately been discussed and these rules were practiced by the Muslims in many wars. For

Documentation of Rules Relating to Wars
The aforesaid discussion shows the efforts to regulate warfare existed to a greater or lesser extent from the very ancient period. Those initiatives were not sufficient to regulate the conducts of parties during warfare until these rules had been documented in any instrument. Regarding documentation of the laws of war first initiative was taken in 1864 following the proposal of Henry Dunant in his book "A Memory of Solferino". Dunant wrote this book witnessing a bloody war between French and Austrian Armies in 1863 where about 38,000 people were killed or wounded in 15 hours. In this devastating war, doctor or nurse or medical or auxiliary personnel or stretcher bearer none was beyond the attack of enemy (Draper, 1979: p. 9). Dunant, in the book "A Memory of Solferino" de-   (James, 2009: p. 49). About 40 million civilians lost their lives in this dangerous war. This massive deportation and murder of the civilians as well as taking and killing hostages drew the international attention on the protection of civilians.

Geneva Conventions and Development of IHL
During the war, ICRC was largely engaged in activities in the war field such as supplying food to the civilians, wounded and other victims, collecting the

Ratifications of the Geneva Conventions
Conventions/Protocols Signatory Bangladesh ratified "First Geneva Conventions of 12 August, " 196 countries 1972 "Second Geneva Conventions of 12 August, " 196 countries 1972 "Third Geneva Conventions of 12 " 196 countries 1972"Fourth Geneva Conventions of 12 August, 1949" 196 countries 1972 As early as in 1950s ICRC identified some new developments of means of warfare, i.e., landmine, atomic, chemical and bacteriological weapons, which had not been covered by the GCs (Maresca & Maslen, 2000).  In June the drafts protocols, its commentary and a report of the Conference were sent to all governments and these draft protocols were presented at the 22 nd ICRC conference the resolution no. XIII welcomed and recommended that governments should take steps to make the texts applicable globally. Thus these important documents on IHL were passed out of hands of ICRC where it intentionally avoided inserting any provisions on prohibiting or limiting conventional weapons (Sandoz et al., 1987: p. xxxii intergovernmental or non-governmental organizations and around 700 delegates participated and under the rules of procedure ICRC participated (Sandoz et al., 1987: p. xxxiii).

The Additional Protocols of Geneva Conventions and Promotion of IHL
The Conference was sub-divided into three main plenary committees, the ad hoc committee on "conventional weapons", the Credentials Committee, the Drafting Committee, as well as numerous working groups. The Arms Trade Treaty".
The above shows that a lot of international conventions, declarations, protocols and treaties on IHL have been accepted from 1863 to date in terms of protecting the victims of AC. The people will get the benefit of this enriched law if the High Contracting Parties enact national legislation inserting the provision of the GCs, but, in this respect, the present situation is not fully satisfactory.

National Legislations Contributing to the Development of IHL
The domestic laws and international laws are not same especially in respect of implementation. National laws can easily be implemented by the state mechanisms but international law faces many obstacles in implementation for example, lack of interest of the State to ratify international documents or ratifying it with reservations, political prejudice, disagreement of the States on many matters, no ing weapons and so on. In international level, although, a lot of conventions and protocols have been adopted but implementation mechanisms are so weak due to reality, for this reasons; many scholars of international law don't agree to recognize international law as a law and described it as a weapons in the hands of powerful states. So an international law is called to have reached its apex development if that law is enacted in the state legislations by most of member states. reach to the satisfactory level. As in every day there is news of armed attacks and mostly the armed conflict not of an international character. It is the common practice of the States that they are interested to address the non-international armed conflict as internal problem where IHL cannot be applied. The Geneva Conventions have been signed by all countries of the world but the AP I and II have not been signed by many countries and even the Rome Statute has not been ratified by many States namely USA, Israel, Myanmar. On the other hand terrorism is now the big concern but the world communities could not come to a comprehensive definition of it and it also remains in the vague realm whether IHL applies in the terrorism and counter terrorism.
In international arena force cannot bear a good result for world peace, so the United Nations and other influential international organization need to play key role to pursue the States to sign and ratify the core documents of IHL. On the other hand the world communities should come to a consensus regarding some important issues, i.e., terrorism, counter-terrorism, cyber warfare, autonomous weapons and so on. Most importantly the signing states also need to take some measures during peace, conflict and post conflict time, namely making national legislation inserting the provision of IHL, disseminating the conventions and protocols to the people, appointing the advisor in the armed forces, settling safety zone, demilitarized zone, military area, translating the conventions and protocols into mother language, establishing court and tribunal, repatriating the arrested persons after conflict and so on.

Conclusion
Only less than a century ago the IHL was quite unknown to the general public and it was confined within the round table discussion and some documents but now it has become a popular branch of international law which has been accepted by all countries of the world and many countries following the obligations of the GCs made national legislations. The IHL previously known as LOW was limitedly in practice among the uncivilized societies also. The modern IHL is very strongly found in many religious books especially in the Holy Quran and the Hadith which significantly contributed towards the development of IHL. Although sufficient international conventions, protocols, optional protocols, statutes and declarations on the LOW are in force in this modern age, they have not been signed and ratified by all states of the world like GCs. And most importantly the world communities those ratified the conventions and protocols, even many of them did not enact sufficient state legislation inserting the provisions of Geneva laws and other international documents for proper and effective implementation of IHL. This study makes a convene to all States of the globe to sign and ratify the international instruments of IHL and make necessary domestic laws inserting the provisions of Geneva and other laws of war existing in the world and establish national court or tribunal for trial of IHL violators.