Treaty of Io

From Acw

Current revision as of 03:00, 8 December 2006

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)

Notes about the convention

It is worthy of note that the restrictions placed on shipborne weapons were basically abrogated by all major space-faring nations within half a century of its inception. In 2173 the first battlecruiser to exceed treaty specifications, the Lenin (III), was completed by the USSR in its Mars spacedocks. It exceeded the Traty's mass and size regulations substantially, and it has since been revealed that it carried nuclear weapons for at least the first twenty years of its active service. By 2219 all major spacefleets had constructed vessels thate exceeded trearty requirements in some way.