While the rules of international humanitarian law (IHL) on humanitarian access are clear, implementing them at the national level can become challenging. To ensure full respect for those rules, States must strike a balance between preserving the security of the civilian population and humanitarian organizations and ensuring that people have access to goods and services that enable the full enjoyment of their rights. This article seeks to show how the IHL rules governing humanitarian access apply in the context of the Sahel region of Africa. First, it describes the multiplicity of armed actors that are present in the Sahel and the humanitarian situation in this region. Next, it addresses the legal framework applicable to humanitarian access under IHL applicable in non-international armed conflicts. The article then examines the measures that have been taken by the States of the Sahel to protect the civilian population and humanitarian organizations, such as the resort to declaration of states of emergency and to armed escorts. It is shown that these measures can hinder the delivery of impartial humanitarian assistance. Finally, the article describes some creative solutions that have been put forward by Sahelian States to facilitate humanitarian access. Examples of these include the creation of coordination mechanisms to foster dialogue on humanitarian access where all concerned actors are invited to participate; the adoption of domestic legal frameworks related to humanitarian access through which this access is proclaimed and its violation sanctioned; and the recognition of humanitarian exemptions in counterterrorism laws.

As belligerent parties, non-State armed groups (NSAGs) contribute to environmental damage in non-international armed conflicts. Drawing from the actual practice and doctrine of NSAGs, this article unpacks the legal and policy framework for engaging them on the protection of the environment. It analyzes the international humanitarian law rules protecting the environment binding on NSAGs. To improve environmental protection, a model of environmental responsibilities under international human rights law and international environmental law based on the NSAG's level of territorial control is suggested, as a matter of policy. This article then explores how to engage NSAGs on the legal and policy framework identified and proposes a model unilateral declaration for the protection of the natural environment.

Several provisions of the 1949 Geneva Conventions and of Protocol I of 1977 stipulate, expressly or implicitly, that the respective Contracting Power must implement them as soon as said instruments enter into force, that is already in peacetime. This is the case, in particular, of the articles common to the four Geneva Conventions concerning the widest possible dissemination of the text of the Conventions and the obligation of the Contracting Parties to communicate to one another the official translations of the Conventions, as well as the laws and regulations they adopt to ensure the application thereof.

It is common knowledge that by signing and ratifying the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 the High Contracting Parties have undertaken to seek out and prosecute all persons, whatever their nationality, committing or ordering to be committed any of the grave breaches defined in the said Conventions. As I have stated elsewhere, this express undertaking is so far removed from present custom, and from the traditional immunities enjoyed by nationals in this respect, as to justify asking how States intend to put it into effect and make its implications thoroughly understood and accepted by their politicians, armed forces and legal authorities.

La « Conferencia de las Naciones Unidas sobre Prohibiciones o Restricciones del Empleo de Ciertas Armas Convencionales que Puedan Considerarse Excesivamente Novicas o de Efectos Indiscriminados » terminó, el 10 de octubre de 1980, con la aprobación, por consenso, de los instrumentos siguientes:

— Convención sobre Prohibiciones o Restricciones del Empleo de Ciertas Armas Convencionales,

— Protocolo sobre Fragmentos no Localizables (Protocolo I),

— Protocolo sobre Prohibiciones o Restricciones del Empleo de Minas, Armas Trampa y otros Artefactos (Protocolo II),

— Protocolo sobre Prohibiciones o Restricciones del Empleo de Armas Incendiarias (Protocolo III).

Además, ya en su primer período de sesiones, la Conferencia aprobó una Resolución sobre los sistemas de armas de pequeño calibre.

Armed conflict is often accompanied or followed by the outbreak of famine. The legal foundations of global humanitarian policy for dealing with famine are reviewed in this article, with special attention to conflict situations and their aftermath. The existing law is examined first, and then recent proposals in the form of drafts and expert studies which seek to develop legal instruments or policy relating to international humanitarian assistance are considered.

At the close of the Diplomatic Conference on the Reaffirmation and Development of International Humanitarian Law (Geneva, 1974–1977), the representatives of the States party to the 1949 Geneva Conventions adopted, on 8 June 1977, two Protocols additional to those Conventions. Following a preparatory period including intense negotiations that lasted for nearly ten years, the new treaties were accepted, despite considerable obstacles, by the plenipotentiaries without a vote and without opposition. Though the solutions adopted for particularly controversial problems could not always suit everyone concerned, the diplomats, legal advisers and military experts who had taken part nevertheless had every reason to return to their capitals with a feeling of satisfaction.

The International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent,

Proclaims that the National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the League of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies together constitute a worldwide humanitarian movement, whose mission is to prevent and alleviate human suffering wherever it may be found, to protect life and health and ensure respect for the human being, in particular in times of armed conflict and other emergencies, to work for the prevention of disease and for the promotion of health and social welfare, to encourage voluntary service and a constant readiness to give help by the members of the Movement, and a universal sense of solidarity towards all those in need of its protection and assistance.

A number of authors, notably Hardcastle and Chua writing in this issue of the Review, have recently argued the case for either the existence of an international legal right to humanitarian assistance or the need to speedily establish such a right.

On 6 May of this year, on the occasion of Mr. Cornelio Sommaruga's taking office as the ICRC's twelfth President, the ICRC General Assembly paid tribute to Mr. Alexandre Hay, who headed the institution from 1 July 1976 to 6 May 1987.

The members of the Committee and the Directorate recalled, in particular, the profound humanity and determination with which Mr. Hay had carried out his responsibilities throughout a decade marked by innumerable crises.

The author of the article printed below is Vice–President of the Institute of International Law and had attended the 1949 Diplomatic Conference in Geneva as a delegate. In October 1974 he organized at the Institut d'Etudes politiques d'Aix-en-Provence a colloquium on Las Casas and Human Rights. The article is reproduced, with the author's permission, from a paper presented at the colloquium.

El 27 de junio de 1986, la Corte Intemacional de Justicia (CIJ), dictó sentencia sobre el caso de las actividades militares y paramilitares en y contra Nicaragua. El caso, que implicaba a Nicaragua contra los Estados Unidos de América, es notable en muchos aspectos, como también lo fue el juicio. Deseo destacar dos rasgos especiales. Se trata de una situación de conflicto armado y se menciona a la Cruz Roja.

El hecho de que la Corte de La Haya se haya ocupado poquísimas veces de una situación real de conflicto armado es una consecuencia de la oposición de los Estados a someter tales cuestiones a su jurisdicción. Que en este caso la Corte haya podido, por lo menos, intervenir es un accidente de procedimiento más bien que el efecto de una actitud excepcionalmente loable de las partes contendientes. Dado que no parece probable que este ejemplo lo sigan pronto muchos, puedo considerarlo tal cual.

Antes de la Primera Guerra Mundial, fueron pocas las mujeres que participaron directamente en las guerras y, por lo tanto, hasta entonces no se sintió la necesidad de otorgarles una protectión jurídica especial. Sin embargo, ello no significa que, en el pasado, las mujeres se beneficiaran de toda protección. Tras el nacimiento del derecho internacional humanitario se han beneficiado de la misma protectión jurídica que los hombres. Las mujeres heridas en campaña estaban protegidas, primeramente, por las disposiciones del Convenio de Ginebra de 1864 para mejorar la suerte que corren los militares heridos en los ejércitos en campaña; las prisioneras de guerra se beneficiaban de las disposiciones del Reglamento anexo a los Convenios de La Haya de 1899 y 1907 sobre las leyes y costumbres de la guerra terrestre

During the period under review no solution had yet been found to the difficulties encountered by the ICRC in carrying out its relief operations for the civilian victims of the conflict and drought. The circulation of convoys became increasingly difficult, most of them being held up for reasons that could not be justified by the military situation alone. In March relief distributions had to be suspended because the regional warehouses were empty.

La reciente focalización explícita en los «grupos vulnerables» de los organismos intemacionales de asistencia —especialmente los que operan en las situaciones de emergencia en todo el mundo— denota dos importantes preocupaciones. La primera: que quienes prestan ayuda quieren poder identificar a las potenciales víctimas de desasties a fin de prever y mitigar esos acontecimientos. La segunda: que la identificación de los grupos vulnerables sirve para encauzar la asistencia —siempre restringida por la limitación de los recursos— hacia los grupos más necesitados. No obstante, habría que entender la vulnerabilidad como un concepto mucho más fuerte, en la concepción y en la aplicación de las operaciones de socorro, que un simple criterio para encauzar la asistencia. En realidad, los problemas surgen al emplear, exclusiva o preferentemente, la noción de vulnerabilidad para designar a los grupos que deben recibir ayuda.

This paper focuses on the individual perspective, as opposed to the institutional or operational one, towards the Fundamental Principles and their underpinning humanitarian values. It demonstrates the added value of this perspective, which goes beyond addressing challenges regarding the Fundamental Principles' understanding and application. By making the Principles and values come alive in peoples' behaviour, the individual perspective also enables Red Cross and Red Crescent staff and volunteers to inspire a change of mindset and behaviour towards a culture of non-violence and peace. Two tools created to this purpose, as well as their impact, are presented: (i) the Seven Skills for Seven Principles (747) framework, which unpacks the high-level Principles into more concrete and tangible components, values and intra- and interpersonal skills; and (ii) the Youth as Agents of Behavioural Change (YABC) initiative, which, using a non-cognitive learning approach, fosters a personal connection towards the Principles and increases participants' ability to role-model them.