The law of the innocents: Ireland’s medieval precursor to the Geneva conventions

According to The Conversation (UK), more than twelve centuries before the Geneva Conventions, a seventh-century Irish monk named Adomnán, Abbott of Iona, persuaded dozens of kings and church leaders to adopt a law protecting women, children, and clerics from wartime violence. Known as the Lex Innocentium, or Law of the Innocents, it was agreed at a church synod in the year six ninety-seven, with roughly ninety-one rulers and senior figures swearing to uphold it. The law imposed fines, and in some cases execution or mutilation, for harming non-combatants, though it faced fierce opposition from some Irish kings who threatened Adomnán's life. The Conversation notes that while the law's enforcement remains unclear, its story offers a lesson in how progress can be lost if it isn't sustained and respected.

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