The 150th anniversary of the birth of Henry Dunant, the 30th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 25th anniversary of the European Convention on Human Rights were all celebrated in 1978. Also in 1978, both the American Convention on Human Rights (1969) and the Protocols additional to the Geneva Conventions (1977) entered into force. The concurrence of these various notable events, all relating to human rights, constitutes an appropriate occasion for an analysis of the relationship which exists between international humanitarian law and human rights.

On 30 June 1979, Mr. Jean Pictet will reach retirement age after forty-two years of service with the ICRC.

He joined the ICRC in 1937 and has had a very full career. He is a thinker, a jurist, a writer, a teacher and at the same time a man of action, who took part in all major Red Cross undertakings; he is the inspirer and the mentor of the Red Cross.

“Voluntary work, less and less an activity undertaken by a small minority for the benefit of the majority, is becoming a natural means for the majority to participate in the life of the community, through pressure groups or directly influencing their environment or by other means.”

This definition, in a British Government paper to the United Nations Environment Conference in Stockholm in June 1972, well summarizes the significance and scope of voluntary work in society today and the way in which the concept of voluntary service has evolved.

It is necessary, first of all, to define what is understood here by the expression “reuniting of families”.

In this article, the term is used in a narrow sense. It refers to the humanitarian protection given, on an international plane, for the reuniting of the members of one and the same family, who have been separated from each other against their will, as a result of external events—international wars, civil wars, internal disturbances, grave political tension—and who have ended up in different countries on either side of a frontier which they find impossible to cross. In most cases, the difficulties involved for such persons to obtain permits allowing them to leave a particular country and enter another are practically insurmountable. It is such persons who are referred to here and it is to them that the ICRC endeavours to bring its assistance.

The remarkable advances made during the last few years in technology, and particularly in electronics, and the increasingly rapid development of scientific inventions are likely to render obsolete the protective markings of the medical service as laid down in the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949.

Writers have expressed the view that man's interest in projects for establishing perpetual peace is as old as man's participation in warfare. We cannot be certain that Europe can be considered the cradle of such projects for peace, although the Greek city states certainly elaborated a complex system of treaty relationships between themselves to that end. Europe was not to see a like network of sophisticated treaty relationships until the 19th century. Supporting these elaborate treaty networks was the fact that the Greeks enjoyed a common religious-legal and linguistic substratum which tended to mitigate the harshness of the intense intercity rivalries and enmities. The Greeks, as in so many other excursions in thought, were the architects of the modern array of different kinds of political treaties, e.g., of alliance, confederation, federation and, from the 4th century B.C., peace treaties of unlimited duration. In particular, religious leagues were established for the common defence of a shared and sacred shrine. Such were the Amphictyonys of the 5th century B.C. The religious bond between the cities parties to such compacts extended into the political sphere so that the city states bound thereby became confederated by the terms of the amphictyony, as was the case of the confederate association for the protection of the great shrine at Delphi.

The principle of proportionality, though it would seem self-evident, is nevertheless difficult to apply fully in real life, where it encounters numerous obstacles.

Let us take some real examples from the Red Cross world. During the Second World War, the ICRC transported and distributed in prisoner-of-war camps of certain countries vast quantities of relief packages it received from the countries of origin of the prisoners. It accepted this task since it was a good thing for at least part of the victims to receive assistance. There were also however many prisoners who received nothing at all, because their countries were powerless to act. The ICRC then tried to arrange for some of the packages addressed to the more fortunate prisoners to be delivered to those in greatest need. The donors sometimes agreed to this, but doing so was nevertheless exceptional and affected only a small proportion of the total shipments.

Francis Bacon once wrote that a man who does not treat his neighbour humanely is not truly human. The ideal of the Red Cross is much greater than its own action. It does not therefore limit itself to assistance and protection, but demands that everyone must respect the human person, his life, liberty and happiness—in other words, everything that constitutes his existence. This must naturally correspond to the requirements of public order and, in wartime, of military necessity.

When trying, in very popular terms, to explain what the Red Cross is, we sometimes define it in three ways: it is an emblem, a symbol, protecting or designating a movement; it is a world organization with 230 million members, almost all of them volunteers, brought together into 126 National Societies; but it is also an ideal, inspiring action to make this ideal a reality, based on a firm belief in a global, human solidarity, active in the fight against suffering.

By way of introduction to their comments on the Tansley Report proposals on co-operation between their two institutions, the ICRC and the League refer to the legal and practical basis of their existing co-operation.

They co-operate at the highest policy-making levels, the International Red Cross Conference and the Council of Delegates. The Statutes of the International Red Cross provide that it shall be the duty of the Standing Commission between sessions of the Conference to ensure the co-ordination and harmony of the efforts of the International Committee and of the League (Article 10/3).

The Twentieth International Red Cross Conference, meeting in Vienna in 1965, proclaimed the “fundamental principles upon which Red Cross action is based”. Since that time, at every Conference, the representatives of the Red Cross world rise to their feet to hear the solemn reading of those principles.

The principles, however, have not yet been the subject of any commentary. The fact is that the book “Les principes de la Croix-Rouge”, the source of the Vienna text, antedated the official version which, while being close to the model, was not identical with it. The book referred to was indeed a complete work, of a somewhat scientific character, and not a terse commentary designed to serve the general public.

At its meeting on 1 March 1979, the ICRC Assembly appointed to the Executive Board Dr. Athos Gallino, a medical doctor, mayor of Bellinzona and a member of the ICRC Assembly since 1977. The ICRC is gratified to know that its Executive Board will henceforth have the benefit of Dr. Gallino's wide experience.

“Tutti fratelli”, cried with emotion the women of Castiglione when, with Henry Dunant, they tended the wounded after the battle of Solferino. In this cry from the heart, this testimony to human solidarity in distress and to voluntary assistance to men who surfer, is to be found the origin of a movement which has so widely expanded during the years and which is called the Red Cross

The ICRC was honoured in 1978-9 to receive several distinguished guests; they were welcomed by President Hay, together with other members of the International Committee and members of the directorate:

5 December 1978, Their Majesties King Carl Gustav and Queen Silvia of Sweden, accompanied by the Permanent Representative of Sweden in Geneva;

16 June 1979, Mr. J. C. Turbay Ayala, President of the Republic of Colombia, accompanied by Mrs. Turbay Ayala, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and of Defence and the Colombian Permanent Representative to Geneva;

21 June, Their Majesties King Juan Carlos and Queen Sophie of Spain, with a large retinue including the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and of Labour, the Spanish Ambassador and the Spanish Permanent Representative to Geneva;

3 July, Mr. Kurt Waldheim, U.N. Secretary-General, with Mr. L. Cottafavi and Mr. W. Buffum, Under Secretaries-General, and others;

11 October, Mr. Abel Alier, Second Vice-President of the Democratic Republic of the Sudan, with Mr. Isseldin Hamid, Minister of State, Mr. Omar Yusif Birido, Ambassador and Permanent Representative to Geneva.

The ICRC should be in constant touch not only with the League, but also with the League members, the National Societies. It intends to strengthen these ties.

Although the ICRC works in close contact with governments, who wanted it to be uninational—a character which was approved by two International Red Cross Conferences—it has always considered that one of its basic tasks was to contribute, to the best of its ability, to uniting the Movement more closely and to strengthening the bonds among its members.

In 1979 Mr. Alexandra Hay, President of the ICRC, undertook missions in several countries where he had discussions on subjects of interest to the ICRC and the Red Cross in general with National Red Cross Society leaders and various government officials.