“According to the preamble, the purpose of the Geneva Conventions Act is two-fold: to enact the Geneva Conventions and its Protocols into South African law, and
to ensure the prevention and punishment of grave and other breaches. The first aim is accomplished by annexing the Conventions in full to the Act and by providing in section 4(1) of the Act that ‘[s]ubject to the Constitution and this Act, the Conventions have the force of law in the Republic’. The second is accomplished by creating a war
crimes regime for prosecuting ‘breaches’ of the Geneva Conventions in South African courts under certain circumstances.”
