Short answers, pulled from the story.
International humanitarian law (IHL), also called the laws of armed conflict, regulates the conduct of war and seeks to protect persons who are not participating in hostilities. It also restricts the means and methods of warfare available to combatants. Serious violations of IHL are classified as war crimes.
The first Geneva Convention was drawn up in 1864, following the founding of the International Committee of the Red Cross in 1863. The conventions were revised and expanded over subsequent decades, with all four conventions being readopted by the international community in 1949 after World War II.
The ICRC was founded in 1863 following the work of Henry Dunant, a Genevese businessman who had worked with wounded soldiers at the Battle of Solferino. Dunant wrote a book titled A Memory of Solferino describing the horrors he witnessed, which led directly to the ICRC's founding and the first Geneva Convention.
IHL bans or restricts several categories of weapons through specific conventions. The 1997 Ottawa Treaty completely bans anti-personnel land mines. The 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions prohibits cluster bombs. The 1980 Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons bans weapons producing non-detectable fragments, incendiary weapons used against civilians, and blinding laser weapons.
The Geneva Conventions of 1949 have achieved universal participation with 194 parties, meaning they apply to almost any international armed conflict. The 1977 Additional Protocols have not reached the same level: as of January 2007, Protocol I had been ratified by 167 countries and Protocol II by 163. The United States, Iran, Israel, India, and Pakistan are not parties to the Additional Protocols.
The principle of distinction requires that parties to an armed conflict distinguish at all times between combatants and military objectives on one side, and civilians and civilian objects on the other, and direct attacks only at the former. The ICRC has found this principle to be an established norm of customary international law in both international and non-international armed conflicts. Civilians lose this protection if they take a direct part in hostilities.