The Historical Evolution of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) from Earliest Societies to Modern Age

International humanitarian law earlier known as the law of war is applied in the armed conflict to protect those who don`t take part in the hostilities or no longer taking part in the hostilities. Even in absence of any international document the earliest societies or communities would have followed some rules of war during conflict either as per the instructions of the community leader or customs or religions. The paper addresses the earlier scattered provisions of the law of war (LOW) or international humanitarian law (IHL) in various religious books, customs and practices. It then turns to the development of IHL by the codification of the rules of war in various international and national documents. This article also focuses on the significant development of IHL by adopting the four Geneva conventions (GCs) and its three additional protocols (AP) and most importantly progress and promotion of IHL by incorporating the laws of armed conflict in the national legislations.