Also, not all nations agree when the conventions apply. President Bush said that the Geneva Convention should not protect the Taliban and Al Qaeda prisoners of war held by the United States at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base (GITMO). Bush said the terrorists were "unlawful combatants" who did not obey the rules of war. (Farrell, 2002) The Geneva Convention's unversality has long been challenged as when South Africa ruled under an apartheid system of government and resisted the convention's 1949 prohibition of racial discrimination. Even today, not all nations have signed the conventions, including nations...

Still, nations such as the United States that have formally agreed to its terms may eventually bow to international public pressure to conform to the convention's dictates, and because of fears of how the United States' own prisoners of war may be treated abroad.
Works Cited

Farrell, Patrick. "What is the Geneva Convention?" History News Network. 2002. http://hnn.us/articles/586.html

OLC's Aug. 1, 2002 Torture Memo ('the Bybee Memo')." Originally posted June 14th, 2004 at Discourse.net. [17 Sept. 2006] http://www.discourse.net/archives/2004/06/olcs_aug_1_2002_torture_memo_the_bybee_memo.html