Be sure you figure out how to enforce it first, especially for those who kidnap kids and turn them into suicide bombers (apparently they give them a 'magic amulet' which they tell the children will protect them from the blast).
I don't think that we can change that. But what we can do is hold ourselves to a higher standard of decency and treat people the way we'd want to be treated.
The problem is that our ROE is seen as an act of weakness, not compassion.
Our ROE says not to shoot unarmed kids. So, the enemy puts suicide vests on kids and sends them at us.
Our ROE says not to shoot people who aren't carrying a weapon. So, they shoot at us, drop their weapon, and walk to the next building to do it again.
Our ROE says not to blow up a house if there are civilians inside. So they take a family hostage and shoot at us from upstairs.
My attitude is that we use these rules as a courtesy. We didn't bomb hospitals in WW2 because those hospitals weren't being used as shelter for soldiers. We didn't bomb orphanages because they didn't have IED factories in their basements. Today's enemy does that, and then people get butthurt when we blow up the orphanage. Well, stop putting bomb factories under there!
Laws of war only apply when both sides agree to abide by them.
The issue with Gitmo is that we're no treating others as we'd want to be treated. 10+ years with no proof/trial, simply because we've made up a new word "enemy combatant" to circumvent the Geneva Conventions... not exactly cool.
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/10/20121014102...