eli5 How does the Geneva convention work? How can it be enforced if nations are already at war? What incentive do armies have for following it?

Question

I mean there are no referees on the battlefield.

In: 3

Answer 1

It’s a tit for tat thing generally.

If you mistreat your prisoners the enemy will mistreat their prisoners back in return.

A good example is Canadian soldiers during WW1, Canadian troops were reputed for being ruthless and regularly killed or mistreated their German prisoners, as a result German army had an habit of specifically killing off Canadian soldiers they captured.

The same happened with Germans who severely mistreated Soviet soldiers and were severely mistreated by the Soviets in return.

Same happened with combat gases and over such things, basically if you acted in a way you had to expect to be treated the same way.