A brief list of many of the laws of war, for purposes such as making the world's first Geneva-compliant colony or optimizing your colony to be evil jackasses in a particularly structured way. May be updated over time. Keep in mind that the laws of war are really complicated, and this guide is probably not 100% accurate. Don't use this as a source on a history essay or as a pocket guide, I'm not exactly an expert on international law. And of course, the UN is not going to send peacekeepers to your home for breaking the laws of war in Rimworld. Now includes human rights and crimes against humanity! Legal and Illegal Weaponry The general protocol for weapons is "Do not cause unnecessary suffering". Weapons that cripple someone without killing are almost always a war crime, and weapons that slowly kill and painfully kill an enemy combatant are generally going to find their way onto the same list. 1) Chemical weapons are a war crime. These refer to gases that are poisonous or cause choking, as well as other weapons that use gases to kill. Mustard gas is an example. Crowd control gases such as tear gas are permitted, but only for domestic riot control. In addition to being illegal to use, chemical weapons are also illegal to research, build, store, give, or sell to others. 2) Biological weapons are a war crime. This refers to microorganisms being used as a weapon of war, such as giving people blankets infected with smallpox or flinging plague victims into a city. They do not have to target humans, and weapons targeting animals or plants still qualify as biological weapons. Like chemical weapons, they also cannot legally be researched, built, stored, given, or sold to others. 3) A weapon with non-metal fragments is a war crime. This means things such as plastic bullets or grenades which fire non-metal shrapnel. This is because there is no way to find the fragments easily, which causes unreasonable suffering to soldiers they are used against. 4) Anti-personnel land mines are a war crime... unless you're the United States, Russia, China, India, or one of 28 other UN member states. This was prohibited by the Ottawa Treaty, and Wikipedia has a nice little map on which countries did or did not sign this. That being said, those which did not sign often have other restrictions on what does or doesn't go. An anti-personnel land mine is one which is designed to kill people rather than vehicles. 5) Incendiary weapons are a war crime... if there might be civilians in the area. An incendiary weapon is a thing which is primarily designed to start fires. An example of this is a flamethrower or white phosphorous. If the weapon is napalm, it comes with the additional restriction of only being okay if the enemy is using plant cover to stay hidden. 6) Cluster munitions are a war crime. If it releases a large number of fragments for injuring people in a wide area, it's illegal. This is because they are rather good at killing innocent civilians and filling an area with unexploded ordnance, or UXOs. 7) Laser weapons are illegal... if they are used to blind people. This refers to laser weapons which are solely used to blind a combatant rather than kill them. If the laser weapon is mainly meant for murder but also sometimes causes blindness to its target in its attempts to kill them, it is perfectly legal. 8) "Weather warfare" is illegal... if it directly harms people. Weather warfare is changing the weather for the sake of warfare. If it does not directly harmful, it is allowed. This means that things such as increasing the rain to make travel difficult or clearing fog to prevent an enemy from hiding are both okay. 9) Poisoned weapons are illegal... for international conflict. This means coating your weapons in poison, poisoning water sources such as wells, or any other form of weapon whose main purpose is to poison people. Thanks to the efforts of the United States and Britain, it doesn't apply to weapons that just so happen to also poison like a nuclear bomb. 10) Environmental modification is illegal. This means that any technique to change the environment, such as a geo-weapon or such, is illegal if it has "widespread, long-lasting, or severe" effects. Widespread means that its effect is over an area of several hundred square kilometers, long-lasting means that it lasts for several months or more, and severe means it seriously or significantly disrupts or harms human life, nature, economic resources, or other things. 11) Suicide weapons are legal. There's no caveat, they are 100% legal under the laws of war. Suicide bombing civilians is a war crime because you're targeting civilians, not because of the suicide bomb. If a uniformed soldier uses a suicide bomb against other uniformed soldiers, that's completely legal under the Geneva Convention. Illegal Weapons Part II: The TPNW While technically not part of the Geneva Convention, many nations have signed the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). It prohibits the following: 1) Don't get, test, or even have nuclear weapons or nuclear explosives. You can't produce them, you can't research them, and you just generally can't get them. If you've already got a couple, get rid of them, because stockpiling them is also illegal. 2) Don't give nuclear weapons to anyone else. If you're getting rid of those nukes, you can't just sell them to your friendly neighbor. 3) Don't accept nuclear weapons from another nation. Don't even try to do it in some weird indirect way. "A friend gave it to me" is as valid an excuse for your colony getting nukes as it was for that guy who got detained by the school resource officer for bringing beer onto the bus while I was in middle school. I still have no clue how he thought that would work. 4) Don't even threaten to use them, much less actually go through with it. 5) Don't help your friends go against the treaty either. 6) Don't let your friends help you go against the treaty. 7) Don't let anyone else keep their nukes on your land. You might be thinking "wait, but I live in a nuclear state, is my beautiful homeland committing war crimes?" The answer is almost certainly yes. It's not violating this treaty though, because not a single nuclear power on Earth bothered to actually show up. The countries this actually applies to are the green ones on this map:

换句话说，如果你愿意，你的殖民地或许可以不受这条规则的约束。另外，反物质弹头可能并不属于“核武器”范畴，所以可以随意使用。 战俘 战俘是被俘的合法战斗人员。合法战斗人员是交战双方武装部队的成员，不包括医护人员和随军牧师。他们在法律上有权参与战争，投降后有权成为战俘。 对战俘的待遇要求如下： 1) 必须以人道方式对待战俘。必须尊重他们的人格。2) 他们应受到保护，免受一切形式的暴力和酷刑，包括强奸，以及侮辱性和有辱人格的待遇。 3) 必须给予他们机会，让其告知家人和红十字国际委员会（ICRC）自己被俘的情况。 4) 必须允许他们与亲属通信，并在合理范围内接收亲属寄来的包裹。 5) 必须为他们提供充足的食物、水、住房和医疗护理。你们提供的1x2大小的房间和生肉是不符合要求的。 6) 他们所做的任何工作都必须获得报酬，且这些工作不得具有侮辱性或危险性。不得强迫他们从事任何与战争相关的工作。 7) 冲突结束后，必须尽快释放他们。8)他们无需提供姓名、年龄和军衔以外的任何信息，也不应被迫提供此类信息。 当然，这些规定仅适用于合法战斗人员。非法战斗人员在接受公正审判前仍享有上述权利，但审判后将受敌方国家完整司法体系的管辖。 投降 1)若有人明确表示投降意图（如举手、丢弃武器、升起白旗等，而《环世界》中的敌人实际上无法做出这些行为），则应接受其投降。 2)士兵之间不存在有条件投降。一旦投降，便无法提出任何条件。3）因受伤、疾病而投降、失去意识或丧失战斗能力者均为“战斗无效人员”，攻击此类人员属于战争罪行。使用“允许工具”中的“终结”功能会违背日内瓦公约精神。 4）若人员从被摧毁或受损的飞行器中跳伞，在其下落过程中不应向其射击。严格来说，空投舱并未使用降落伞，特此说明。 5）在此情况下跳伞的人员，除非其明显正在实施敌对行为，否则应在被攻击前给予其投降的机会。 6）假装投降或以其他方式伪装成战斗无效人员，实则仍具备战斗能力，此行为属于战争罪行。 7）宣称“不留活口”或拒绝接受投降，同样属于战争罪行。战争法的其他部分 1) 对平民造成的伤害必须与造成伤害的军事行动或战术所获得的军事利益成比例。为削弱工业能力和摧毁城内军事基地而轰炸城市是可接受的，但将轰炸城市作为午后娱乐活动或获取嗜血情绪加成则不可接受。 2) 所有非战斗人员同样受保护，免受暴力、酷刑和羞辱。禁止将他们扣为人质，使用平民作为人体盾牌至少是不被认可的行为。 3) 禁止对受保护人员及其财产进行掠夺、抢劫、恐怖主义行为和报复，同时禁止任何形式的集体惩罚。你不能因为有战俘试图越狱就射杀他们，也不能因为部分当地人成为叛乱分子就摧毁和洗劫民用目标，诸如此类。 4) 要成为合法战斗人员，士兵必须符合特定标准。这包括穿着制服、在一定距离内可被识别为战斗人员，以及不犯下战争罪。 5) 战斗人员需要有指挥官，除非冲突发生得过于突然，无法事先选定指挥官。该指挥官需对其指挥下发生的任何战争罪负责。 6) 攻击带有若干受保护标志的医生、医院船或救护车是非法的。这些标志包括：红十字。

红十字会与红新月会国际联合会

红色水晶（中心可能带有或不带有大卫之星）

在佩戴或展示上述任何标识时，必须保持中立。若在此情况下实施战争行为，本身即构成战争罪，佩戴者或展示者将可能被自由射击。 7) 向挥舞白旗的人员或车辆射击是非法的，因为白旗表示有投降意愿或希望与敌方沟通。与受保护标识一样，佩戴或展示白旗时，佩戴者必须保持中立。 8) 若某人受战争法保护（如医生或平民），将其用作人体盾牌或伪装属于战争罪。9) 某些物体即便在正常情况下属于军事目标，也可能无法被攻击，因为它们“包含危险力量”（这是《日内瓦公约》的准确措辞，尽管听起来有些滑稽），一旦这些力量被释放，可能会造成巨大伤害。其中明确包括水坝和核电站，以及另一项由Steam自动屏蔽的基础设施。如果可能对它们造成损害，你甚至不能在其附近发动攻击。不过，有三个主要例外情况： - 该设施正以非正常方式运行，且这种运行方式能为军事行动带来重大利益。 - 该设施的电力被定期且直接用于军事行动。- 该地区的其他军事行动如果也被频繁用于直接军事目的，将失去其保护地位。 在上述所有例外情况中，只有在别无他法的情况下，才允许冒着损坏设施的风险采取行动。在实施攻击时，必须尽最大可能全面保护平民，并且必须采取一切可能的预防措施，防止己方人员引发下一场切尔诺贝利事件。 10) 不得将军事目标隐藏在上述危险力量容器附近，除非这些军事目标是为了保护这些容器，且其所有武器仅具备防御能力，别无其他用途。“别无其他用途”意味着，你不能将【Rimatomics】中的惩罚者轨道炮放置在核电站旁边。11) 前面提到的物体应标记有特殊标识【三个明亮的橙色圆圈置于同一轴线上】，以便清晰识别，避免意外轰炸。但攻击未标记的设施仍然是违规的。标识外观如下：

There's not a specific shade of orange beyond "bright" or a specific length apart that the circles need to be. Rome Statute (Crimes against Humanity) There's not actually a list of "crimes against humanity" so much as a definition for "crime against humanity". This is also separate from war crimes, so the guide title is technically inaccurate now in the same way that your colony is technically Geneva Conventions compliant. Something is a crime against humanity if it follows all three of these criteria: PART 1: It has one of the following as a physical element: Murder Extermination Enslavement Deportation or Forcible Transfer of Population Imprisonment Torture Grave Forms of Sexual Violence (yes that is the actual wording on the UN website) Persecution Enforced (((disappearances))) Specifically Apartheid Other inhumane acts PART 2: It has to be in the context of a widespread or systematic attack against any civilian population. An individual soldier shooting a civilian is not a crime against humanity (although it is a war crime). A group of soldiers shooting other soldiers is not a crime against humanity. A group of soldiers shooting up a school, however, is a crime against humanity. PART 3: Anyone being charged must have knowledge of the attack. Simple intent is enough to get charged in anything except persecution, which also requires discriminatory intent. It can be against any group, but has to be over a large amount of people, large amount of area, or done methodically. Random, accidental, and isolated acts aren't crimes against humanity. It counts as a crime against humanity regardless of whether or not a war is going on. Universal Declaration of Human Rights These are the articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. These are also not part of the laws of war, and the guide title is basically meaningless at this point. They also apply outside of war. Article 1: All human beings are free and equal in dignity or rights. Everyone is a person and you should act in a spirit of brotherhood. Article 2: Human rights apply to everyone regardless of race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. While this sadly means human rights apply to the Empire DLC's nobility, it doesn't include "species". Just saying. Article 3: Everyone has the right to life, liberty, and security of person. Article 4: Slavery is not okay. Don't enslave people. Selling slaves isn't okay either. Article 5: Torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment/punishment are not okay and shouldn't be done. Article 6: You aren't allowed to legally say that a person isn't a person. Article 7: Everyone is equal under the law and can't be discriminated against, especially as applies to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 8: Everyone has the right to be fairly repaid if their rights are violated. Article 9: You can't arbitrarily arrest people, you have to have a reason for that. Article 10: Everyone has a right to a fair trial for criminal charges. Article 11: Everyone is innocent until fairly proven guilty, and can only be punished based on the degree set at the time of the offense (if someone commits a crime, the punishment for the crime is raised, and then the person is sentenced, they're punished according to the original punishment rather than the new, higher punishment). Article 12: You can't arbitrarily mess with people's families, privacy (looking at you mister NSA agent, ♥♥♥♥ off please), home, or correspondence. You also can't arbitrarily attack people's honor and reputation. Everyone has a right to legal protection from this. Article 13: Everyone has a right to move around their own home nation, the right to live anywhere within that nation, the right to leave the nation they're in, and the right to return to their home nation. Article 14: Everyone has the right to asylum in another country unless the persecution is due to a non-political crime or an act contrary to the "purposes and principles of the United Nations". Article 15: Everyone has the right to a nationality, and can't be arbitrarily deprived of it or denied the right to change it. Article 16: Men and women of full age are allowed to marry regardless of their race, nationality, or religion. They have the right to found a family under the same circumstances. They have equal rights to marriage, during marriage, and at the end of marriage. Marriage requires free and full consent, and families are entitled to protection by the society and the State. Article 17: Everyone is allowed a right to property both on their own and in association with others. No one can be arbitrarily deprived of their property. Article 18: Everyone has the right to free thought, free conscience, and free religion. They can change their religion of belief, and manifest it as they wish in teaching, practice, worship, and observance. It's not directly stated, but it is heavily implied that sacrificing nonbelievers to Cthulu is a violation of this. Article 19: Everyone has the right to hold an opinion without interference. They also have the right to seek, recieve, and impart information through any media and regardless of their location. Article 20: Everyone has the right to freedom of assembly and association, but that association cannot be compelled. Article 21: Everyone has the right to either direct participation in government or indirect participation through freely chosen representatives. Everyone has the right of equal access to public service, and the will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government. This will is expressed through periodic and genuine elections with universal and equal suffrage and fair voting procedures. In other words, democracy is a human right. Article 22: Everyone has the right to social security and economic, social, and cultural rights needed for their dignity and free development as a person. See, it's a human right, now give me my ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ free healthcare (insert current US president here). Article 23: Everyone has the right to work, a free choice in employment, a right to good work conditions, and protection against unemployment. Everyone must be paid equally without discrimination. Everyone has the right to fair payment. Everyone has the right to form and join trade unions. Article 24: Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable working hours. Your Rimworld pawns really care about this article, so odds are you're already good here. Alternatively, your pyromaniac is about to set a chair on fire. Article 25: Everyone has a right to a standard of living adequate to the health and well-being of themselves and their families, including food, clothing, housing, medical care (oh ♥♥♥♥ that's actually a human right), necessary social services. They also have the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age, or other circumstances beyond their control. You can't kill a pawn because they lost their leg, and not giving them clothes is right out. Article 26: Everyone has a right to education. This education should be free in at least the fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Higher education should be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit. It should be directed to development of the human personality, strengthening respect for human rights, and promoting fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance, and friendship between all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the United Nations for the maintenance of peace. The UN has a scary number of provisions about "further the will of the UN" for an international peacekeeping body, not going to lie. Oh, also parents can choose the kind of education their children get. Article 27: Everyone has the right to freely participate in the cultural life of their community, and enjoy the benefits of art and science. Article 28: Everyone is entitled to a social and international order where these can be fully realized. Human rights crusade, let's go. Article 29: Everyone has duties to the community. When exercising these rights, everyone shall be subject only to limitations determined by the law solely for securing recognition of the rights and freedoms of other and meeting the requirements of morality, public order, and general welfare in a democratic society. These rights may in no way be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations (what the ♥♥♥♥? That sounds kind of evil-dictatorship-y). Article 30: Nothing in this Declaration can be interpreted as implying for any State, group, or person to engage in any activity or perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms in the declaration. In others words, this is the free space of Human Rights Violation Bingo. Geneva on the Rimworld "Ah-ha, but there is no Geneva convention on the Rimworld" says half this guide's comments. The Geneva Convention is customary international law. Because it's already expected between states, the few dissenters are expected to also follow it regardless of whether or not they're signatories. On the Rimworld, a lot of these provisions aren't followed. However, the Geneva Convention isn't a single customary law. Even before it was written, its components were often customary laws themselves, or established in smaller and older treaties. Afterwards, every provision followed by everyone became customary law as well. If you can reasonably expect everyone to do it, that's a customary law. A big non-war-crimes one is diplomatic immunity. When the rest of the Rim follows conventions against weather warfare, your colony can be expected to do the same even if those Rimworlders also refuse to wear uniforms and regularly launch incendiary shells at each other. Now, what if your colony signed the Geneva Conventions? As a signatory, it's expected to follow them as long as the enemy is applying them as well. It's not Geneva-compliant to firebomb tribals until they firebomb you. Geneva also applies even if only one side recognizes the war, and it applies in cases of occupying a signatory's territory. Mods involving War Crimes Here's several mods that include war crimes, increasing the challenge to create a Geneva-compliant colony or just adding more ways to make a crueler colony: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=761421485 Yes, Allow Tool of all mods breaks the Laws of War. The Finish Off command only works on your hors de combat opponents. Breaking the Geneva Convention is quality of life on the Rimworld. LAWS BROKEN: Attacks against Non-Combatants. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1693437813&searchtext=munitions This mod adds a bunch of chemical and incendiary weapons. Basically everything but APDS, HEAT, and Mechanoid Shells hit some law or another. LAWS BROKEN: Chemical Weapons, AP Land Mines, Incendiary Weapons, Cluster Munitions https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1786466855 It's harder to have less respect for your prisoners as human beings than this. That being said, that law does only apply to prisoners, and a shell filled with mutagenic nanomachines isn't quite a chemical weapon.. but all those new animals are going to be hell on the local ecosystem, making it environmental modification. LAWS BROKEN: Environmental Modification, Humane Treatment for POWs, Degrading/Dangerous Work Includes crimes against humanity (torture, other inhumane acts). https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1845154007 Not only does this mod encourage using barrels of chemfuel as an incendiary weapon, it adds an extra landmine to make breaking conventions on anti-personnel explosives even easier. Its catapults are also on shaky ground, since 90kg chunks of slate launched 300 meters tend to give off quite a few non-metal fragments. LAWS BROKEN: Non-Metal Fragments, AP Land Mines, Incendiary Weapons https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2062943477&searchtext=vanilla+power This mod just added gas chambers. Yes, it is a crime against humanity to use them against your prisoners. LAWS BROKEN: Chemical Weapons Includes crimes against humanity (murder, torture) https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2454918354 This mod includes tear gas, which is considered a chemical weapon when used against enemy combatants. It is allowed for domestic reasons, however, just in case you want to tear gas your own pawns. LAWS BROKEN: Chemical Weapons https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2521176396 The Explosive Belt in this mod is illegal. Suicide bombs may be legal, but incendiary weapons aren't. Also, while the cross on the medic bag is the wrong color to be a protected symbol, the Battle Banner can be made white. If it's white, it's illegal to fly it without neutral intent. LAWS BROKEN: Incendiary Weapons, Protected Symbols (White Flag) https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2479560240 This one is a big one. Starting with the omni-tool, the Combat Drone and Incinerate are incendiary weapons, making them both illegal. In addition, Alliance colonies are filled with civilians, making it illegal to bomb them from a distance. As a nice bonus, those colonies will also break the laws of war themselves, as the armed civilians within them are most certainly illegal combatants. LAWS BROKEN: Incendiary Weapons, Excessive Civilian Casualties https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=2654846754 Many of the superpowers are rather illegal, such as the incendiary laser eyes and fireball. On top of that, Zealots are of course a huge violation of the regulations on POWs. LAWS BROKEN: Chemical Weapons, Incendiary Weapons, Humane Treatment for POWs https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2059450213&searchtext=war+crimes+expanded For how evil of a mod it is, this breaks a surprisingly small part of the Geneva Convention. Still, it's another way to not treat your prisoners humanely. For a colony trying to be Geneva compliant, however, it does add extra challenge. They may have arrived mutilated, but it's hardly adequate medical care to leave them that way if it's within your ability to fix. In terms of crimes against humanity, the mod is literally designed to be crimes against humanity. The name is just a misnomer. This isn't about the Geneva Convention, it's about the Rome Statute. LAWS BROKEN: Humane Treatment for POWs, Sufficient Medical Care for POWs Includes crimes against humanity (murder, enslavement, torture, other inhumane acts). https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1899474310&searchtext=prison+labor Prison Labor is actually fairly Geneva compliant. As long as your prisoners aren't making guns or armor, you're following the Geneva Convention. Just make sure to treat them properly, set aside some silver to give to their home colony, and release them when the conflict is over, and your colony will remain in good standing with the laws of war even with its legion of slaves. LAWS BROKEN: Payment for Work, Degrading/Dangerous Work, Work Related to War Includes crimes against humanity (enslavement). Thanks for reading! If you're wondering about sources, most of this was from Wikipedia. That's generally a good place to find things if you're actually interested in the laws of war (or in anything really). Don't commit too many war crimes! Geneva Convention, more like Geneva Suggestion I made the joke so you don't have to. Update August 2024, really think the joke was a mistake. It's fun to say Geneva Suggestion all the time or whatever, but keep in mind that all the bodies behind all this do some great work. Donate to the Red Cross if you've ever got the money to spare, it saves lives. https://www.icrc.org/en/how-you-can-support-us https://www.ohchr.org/en/get-involved Edited a bunch of the guide to be less outright hostile to international law. It was a mistake to write it like that, and it's been a mistake to keep it like that.