text: General Background and Basic Principles of the Law of Armed Conflict
  Article 3
  In the case of armed conflict not of an international character occurring in the territory
  of one of the High Contracting Parties, each Party to the conflict shall be bound to
  apply, as a minimum, the following provisions:
  (1)Persons taking no active part in the hostilities, including members of armed
  forces who have laid down their arms and those placed hors de combat by sickness,
  wounds, detention, or any other cause, shall in all circumstances be treated humanely,
  without any adverse distinction founded on race, colour, religion or faith, sex, birth or
  wealth, or any other similar criteria.
  To this end, the following acts are and shall remain prohibited at any time and
  in any place whatsoever with respect to the above-mentioned persons:
  (a)violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel
  treatment and torture;
  (b)taking of hostages;
  (c)outrages upon personal dignity, in particular, humiliating and degrading
  treatment;
  (d)the passing of sentences and the carrying out of executions without
  previous judgment pronounced by a regularly constituted court, affording all the judicial
  guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples.
  (2)The wounded and sick shall be collected and cared for.
  An impartial humanitarian body, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross,
  may offer its services to the Parties to the conflict.
  The Parties to the conflict should further endeavour to bring into force, by means of
  special agreements, all or part of the other provisions of the present Convention.
  The application of the preceding provisions shall not affect the legal status of the
  Parties to the conflict.
  Figure 1-1. Common Article 3
  PRINCIPLES OF THE LAW OF ARMED CONFLICT
  1-18. When no specific rule applies, the principles of LOAC form the general guide for conduct during war
  (see DOD Law of War Manual, 2.1.2.2). States acknowledged this idea in treaty law in the Preamble to Hague
  IV, a provision commonly known as the “Martens Clause,” set forth in Figure 1-2 on page 1-6, for its
  association with Russian representative Fyodor Martens, who first proposed the clause in the preamble to the
  1899 Hague Convention II on the Laws and Customs of War on Land). (For other treaties using some form
  of the Martens Clause, see also GWS art. 63; GWS Sea art. 62; GPW Art. 142; GC art. 158; 1980 United
  Nations Convention on Conventional Weapons [CCW] preamble; AP I art. 1(2); Protocol Additional to the
  Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and Relating to the Protection of Victims of Non-International
  Armed Conflicts (“Additional Protocol II”) (June 8, 1977) [AP II] preamble.).