“What role has the Red Cross played and, indeed, what role can it play, in connection with disarmament?”, was a question that the Red Cross asked itself during the recent International Red Cross Conference in Bucharest. We felt that this matter called for some serious thought as the special session of the United Nations General Assembly on Disarmament drew near.

International Review of the Red Cross is pleased to bring to its readers' attention an article on Dr. Théodore Maunoir, one of the five founders of the Red Cross, about whom little is known and little has been written.

The article is from the pen of Mr. Roger Durand, President of the Henry Dunant Society, Geneva, who published it recently in Gesnerus, the quarterly review of the Société suisse d'histoire de la médecine et des sciences naturelles (vol. 34, fasc. 1/2, pp. 139–155, Ed. Sauerländer, Aarau, 1977). It is reproduced here with the kind permission of the author, of Gesnerus and of Editions Sauerländer, to whom we express our thanks.

The events in Lebanon and the despatch of a UN armed force to keep the peace there brings into focus a problem which cannot be ignored, the application of international humanitarian law in armed conflicts. This problem has two aspects:

— What is the nature of the armed forces which the UN commits or can commit at the present time?

— To what extent are these armed forces obliged to apply humanitarian law?

On assistance in natural disasters, the Tansley Report on the Re-appraisal of the Role of the Red Cross makes several general and some specific proposals. All have been thoroughly examined by the League of Red Cross Societies whose thinking on the subject is set out below.

After the Republic of Ghana, the first State to ratify, in February 1978, the two Protocols additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, on 7 June 1978, deposited with the Swiss Government its instrument of accession to Protocols I and II.

On 7 December 1978 the two Protocols—one for the protection of victims of international armed conflicts and one for the protection of victims of non-international armed conflicts–additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 will come into force.

From 19 May to 10 June 1978, Mr. Jean-Pierre Hocké, Director of ICRC's Operations Department, visited several African countries, including Rhodesia/Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Ethiopia. The purpose of his mission was to study and define, with the ICRC delegations on the spot, the nature and scope of the forthcoming protection and assistance programmes to be carried out by the ICRC. In all the places he visited, Mr. Hocké also met the customary interlocutors, the authorities and National Societies, with whom the ICRC is in contact.

ICRC President Alexandra Hay was in North America during the first fortnight of March. He was accompanied by Jean-Pierre Hocke, Director, Operations Departement, and Michel Veuthey, Delegate to international organizations.

We have the honour to inform you that the Papua New Guinea Red Cross Society, which was officially recognized on 15 September 1977 by the International Committee of the Red Cross provided that the said Society submitted a declaration of adherence to the Statutes of the International Red Cross, has now transmitted this document to us, in compliance with the procedure resulting from Resolution XI of the Seventeenth International Red Cross Conference. This official recognition brings the number of member Societies of the International Red Cross to 125.

In a letter which reached the President of the Swiss Confederation on 13 April 1978, the Kingdom of Tonga declared that it considered itself bound by the four Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 for the protection of war victims, by virtue of the prior ratification of the Conventions by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

The protection of victims of armed conflicts is laid down in the Geneva Conventions, to which were added in 1977 some extremely important definitions contained in the Protocols.

But the protection of victims of disasters, natural or otherwise, has still not been governed by any international instruments binding governments. It is true that numerous attempts have been made to organize and co-ordinate relief when a disaster has occurred, with varying results, but the situation of individuals in a country struck by a disaster is governed only by that country's national legislation.

The Vice-President of the Viet Nam Red Cross (VNRC), Dr. Nguyen Van Tin, accompanied by Mr. Truong Xuan Nam, Assistant Secretary-General, and Mr. Le Dong, member of the Society's Central Committee, were the guests of the International Red Cross (IRC) in Geneva from 31 March to 7 April.

At its meeting on 6 July, the ICRC Assembly appointed to the Executive Board, for a term of office expiring at the end of 1980, Mr. Jakob Burckhardt, who has been a member of the Assembly since 1975. By closely associating him in its activity, the ICRC will benefit more regularly from his wide experience.

We communicate to you below the appeal which the International Committee of the Red Cross sent on 23 May 1978 to the governments taking part in the special session of the United Nations General Assembly now being held on disarmament:

“On the occasion of the special session of the United Nations General Assembly on disarmament, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is anxious that its voice on this very important question should be heard.