GLOOM WILL accompany the 75th anniversary of the Geneva Conventions next month. Debates rage as to whether this batch of treaties, which govern how wars may be fought, and later protocols, which ban genocide, torture and more, remain fit for purpose. The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has warned of “increasing elasticity” in how countries apply the laws of war, which the conventions underpin.

Take Russia. In Ukraine and Syria the country has disdained the laws of war and frequently hit civilian targets without compunction: on July 8th a children’s hospital in Ukraine’s capital was bombed. Israel is also criticised for its conduct in Gaza as it fights Hamas. Some 38,000 Palestinians have been killed. Yet Israel insists on the legality of its strikes on schools, hospitals and refugee camps. Meanwhile, in Sudan conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group, has flattened swathes of the country. More than 750,000 people are at risk of famine.