It is known that the XXIst International Conference of the Red Cross voted a resolution (No. XVII) relative to the protection of the victims of non-international armed conflicts and by which it “asks the ICRC to devote special attention to this problem within the framework of the more general studies it has started to develop humanitarian law”. However, before the meeting at Istanbul, the author of the following article had already written a study on the subject entitled “Der Bürgerkrieg”, which is of topical interest and of which we now give extracts at some length in our own translation (Ed.).