On the 10th December 1948, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which had been drawn up by a series of meetings of the Commission of Human Rights and the Commission on the Condition of Women as well as major discussions which took place during the first seven sessions of the Economic and Social Council. The General Assembly presented this Declaration “as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education … and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance …”

Over the last few years there has evolved a new attitude towards the disabled. Rehabilitation no longer means a course of therapy, but full reintegration of the disabled to daily life, and this is increasingly the attitude of those in charge of vocational rehabilitation workshops, of rehabilitation technicians, doctors and also organizations of disabled persons. The International Labour Review recently published an article on this subject and—by kind permission—we are pleased to reproduce it here, for it describes the efforts being made so effectively in Czechoslovakia to enable the disabled to carry on an occupation.

Medical teams at work.—Welcomed by the delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross, the medical team of the Swiss Red Cross arrived in Saigon then flew to Kontum on the high central plateau. It consisted of nine persons to whom one more was added a few days later. These ten doctors, male nurses and nursing sisters immediately set to work at the Kontum hospital.

Ambassador Averell Harriman, personal representative of the President of the United States, was received, at his request, on May 6, 1966 by Mr. Samuel A. Gonard, President of the International Committee of the Red Cross. The meeting bore on the position of prisoners of war in both North and South Vietnam.

The day before, the ICRC President had met U Thant, Secretary- General of the United Nations, who emphasized the importance of the task devolving on the ICRC to improve the lot of prisoners of war in Vietnam.

The Federal Political Department in Berne has informed the ICRC that it has received the instrument of accession by the Republic of Honduras to the four Geneva Conventions of August 12, 1949. This accession will take effect on June 30, 1966.

In one of its previous numbers, the International Review mentioned that the International Tracing Service (ITS) had in 1965 celebrated its 20th anniversary of existence and that this also marked ten years of the ICRC's presence at Arolsen. We also gave some figures which showed a constant increase in inquiries reaching Arolsen between 1951 and 1965, about 1,900,000 in all. It can already be seen from annual statistics, that even twenty years after the end of the war, the public still has to resort to the ITS to obtain information and documents. We would moreover recall that on June 30, 1965 that Service numbered 234 on its staff.

The Red Cross prevents and alleviates human suffering in time of war as in time of peace, irrespective of class, race, nationality, religion, political beliefs or any other criterion, solely tin the basis of humanitarian principles. This line of conduct has been and still is being followed daily in many different situations, for despite outstanding progress in different spheres and all that has been achieved by modern techniques and growing civilization, present-day society still desperately needs help in relieving human suffering.

The Red Cross constantly provides such aid, sometimes discreetly, sometimes in a more spectacular way, but always in accordance with the basic principles governing Red Cross work.