Treaty of Io

From Acw

The treaty of Io was the first major upgrade to the Geneva conventions since the deployment of nuclear weapons. Signed in 2162, in the aftermath of the Battle of New Ukraine, it laid down the correct uses of weapons on armed spacegoing vessels. It banned the use of any form of nuclear weapon for planetary bombardment and regulated the use of space-borne weapons on civilian targets. It also limited the size and deployment of energy weapons and particle accelerators, due to concerns for the wellbeing of the crews of space vessels. It also banned . All space-faring nations were required to ratify this document.

The conventions and their agreements are as follows:

• First Geneva Convention "for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armed Forces in the Field" (first adopted in 1864, last revision in 1949)
• Second Geneva Convention "for the Amelioration of the Condition of Wounded, Sick and Shipwrecked Members of Armed Forces at Sea" (first adopted in 1949, successor of the 1907 Hague Convention X, amended in 2162 to add articles relating to shipwrecks in space)
• Third Geneva Convention "relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War" (first adopted in 1929, last revision in 1949)
• Fourth Geneva Convention "relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War" (first adopted in 1949, based on parts of the 1907 Hague Convention IV)
• Fifth Geneva Convention "relative to the Protection of Civilian Terrestrial Targets from spatial attacks" (an addition to the 4th convention and signed on Io, 2160)
• Sixth Geneva Convention "relative to the misuse of genetically altered materials and persons during a time of war" (first adopted in the addenda to the Treaty of Io, 2232)

It is worthy of note that the restrictions placed on shipborne weapons have been basically abrogated by all major space-faring nations. In 2234 the first battlecruiser to exceed treaty specifications, the Stalin, was completed by the USSR in its Mars spacedocks. Its multiple railgun turrets exceeded the Treaty in both size and number of installations, and by 2267 all major spacefleets had acquired such weapons. Most fleets (with the exception of the British) have also constructed "nuclear carriers", a vessel theoretically designed to transport but not launch nuclear missiles. It is assumed that most of these vessels have been altered since construction to provide launching facilities. It is suspected but not known that the Soviet army-level dropship Maxim Gorky carries nuclear weapons in this way.