Society of Professional Journalists: Geneva Conventions

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International Journalism Committee
The International Journalism Committee works to improve and protect international journalism and encourage the free practice of journalism in all countries.

For the purposes of this committee, international journalism is defined as any journalism that involves foreign journalists, that takes place overseas, or that deals with international affairs.

To improve international journalism, the committee will do some or all of the following:

— Write articles about international journalism for Quill.
— Put together a panel on a topic related to international journalism at the annual convention.
— Lend assistance to journalists when they ask for our help, both American and foreign, to the extent we are able to do so.
— Create resources of use to international journalists and make them available via the Web, printed guidebooks, or other means to both foreign and American journalists.
— Find ways to bring foreign journalists to the U.S. and American journalists overseas for fellowships, conferences, and other educational purposes.

To protect international journalism, the committee will do some or all of the following:

— Draft press releases and letters on behalf of international journalism or international journalists.
— Lobby Congress in favor of measures that support international journalism.
— Work with other organizations on international projects related to freedom of speech, freedom of information, and similar issues.
— Act as a watchdog on U.S. government agencies that may attempt to restrict international journalism.

Are you interested in serving on the committee? Please contact our committee chairs to find out how you can help.

International Journalism Committee Chair

Ricardo Sandoval
Assistant City Editor
Sacramento Bee
Bio (click to expand)

Ricardo Sandoval is Assistant City Editor at the Sacramento Bee newspaper. He supervises the paper’s environment, science and regional development teams of reporters. Before joining The Bee, Sandoval was a foreign correspondent, based in Mexico City, for the Dallas Morning News and Knight Ridder Newspapers. Sandoval was born in Mexico and raised in San Diego, California. He graduated with a journalism degree from Humboldt State University in Northern California. His career has spanned three decades and has included award-winning coverage of California agriculture, immigration, the savings and loan scandal and the deregulation of public utility companies. His list of awards includes the Overseas Press Club, the InterAmerican Press Club, the Gerald Loeb prize for business journalism and two honors from the Northern California chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. Sandoval co-authored — with his wife, journalist Susan Ferriss — the biography “The Fight in the Fields: Cesar Chavez and the Farmworkers Movement” published in 1997 by Harcourt.

Ronnie Lovler, vice chair
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)

Ronnie Lovler is associate director of the Center for Integration and Improvement of Journalism at San Francisco State University. She is also senior writer for the nonprofit Newsdesk.org, and its public-interest news service, “News You Might Have Missed”. In addition to serving as international committee chair, Ronnie is a member of the executive board of the northern California chapter of SPJ. Ronnie taught journalism at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, Florida before moving to San Francisco.

Ronnie’s journalism career spans several decades. She served as bureau chief and correspondent for CNN in Latin America for almost 10 years. During her time at CNN, she reported from every country in Latin America. She also worked for CBS News, The Weather Channel and The Associated Press, as well as The San Juan Star in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She was part of a team of observers headed by President Jimmy Carter monitoring electoral processes in Nicaragua (2001) and Venezuela (2004). During the 2005 U.S. hurricane season, Ms. Lovler worked with the American Red Cross as a volunteer crisis communicator and public information officer. She received her undergraduate degree from Ohio State University and her graduate degree in communications at the University of Florida.

Home > International Journalism > Reference Guide to the Geneva Conventions > Online Resources

Reference Guide to the Geneva Conventions
Online Resources

Geneva Conventions:
A Reference Guide
Welcome
About the Guide
Alphabetical Index
Introduction
History
Conventions Texts
I | II | III | IV | PI | PII

Author's Note
Resources/Links
Contacts
Order a Copy

Image of original document of the first Geneva Convention from 1864 courtesy Kevin Quinn, Ohio, US; licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution license

The International Committee of the Red Cross posts the full texts of the Geneva Conventions, as well as commentaries and the lists of which countries have signed. It is very easy to navigate and it has the full texts of many treaties that deal with humanitarian law.

The United Nations web site has links to the major international enforcement bodies, much information about human rights, as well as full texts of treaties but it slightly less easy to use and there's a charge for accessing most of the treaties.

For human rights violations information visit the following:

— Human Rights Watch
— Amnesty International
— Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders)
— Human Rights First
— Coalition for an International Criminal Court
— World Justice Information Network
— The International Law Of War Association
— International Monitor Institute

For journalism resources, visit the following:

— Committee to Protect Journalists
— Institute for War and Peace Reporting
— Center for War, Peace and the News Media
— The Crimes of War Project

Offline Resources

Best, Geoffrey: Humanity in Warfare. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1980). A thorough history of the laws of war.

Falk, Richard A., Gabriel Kolko and Robert Jay Lifton, eds: Crimes of War. (New York: Random House, 1971). Focuses on the war crimes issues of the Vietnam conflict.

Gutman, Roy and David Rieff, eds: Crimes of War, What the Public Should Know. (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1999). A must-have reference with contributions from over 150 journalists.

Knightley, Phillip: The First Casualty. (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1975). A great history of war journalism.

Meron, Theodor: Human Rights in Internal Strife: Their International Protection. (Cambridge: Grotius Publications Limited, 1987). An academic text, and heavy going at times, but deals with the distinctions between humanitarian law and human rights law.

Meron, Theodor: Human Rights and Humanitarian Norms as Customary Law. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989). A scholarly discussion of universal norms of conduct in war and peacetime.

Neier, Aryeh: War Crimes: Brutality, Genocide, Terror, and the Struggle for Justice. (New York: Random House, 1998). A great introduction to the history of war crimes and war crimes prosecution.

Pictet, Jean: Development and Principles of International Humanitarian Law. (Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1985). An accessible introduction to the history and basic principles of humanitarian law, by the former chair of the ICRC Law Commission.

UNESCO, International Dimensions of Humanitarian Law. (Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1988). A very thorough academic look at the history and principles of armed conflicts.

Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, An Easy Reference to International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights Law. (New York: United Nations, 1999) A basic 21-page pamphlet that's meant to provider humanitarian personnel with a quick reference to international humanitarian and human rights law.