As in previous years, the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross sent a message to many countries as follows:

On the threshold of the New Year, as President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, I send you my greetings and best wishes; I share with you the hope that 1968 may at last see an atmosphere of peace prevailing in the world.

Dans son message de novembre 1918, le Comité International de la Croix-Rouge a marqué son intention d'etendre le champ de son activité à toutes les œuvres destinées à guérir les maux dont souffre l'humanité et, si possible, à les prévenir. C'est dire qu'aux questions de secours il entend joindre les questions bien autrement importantes de l'hygiène. II s'est souvenu du vieil adage si souvent répété et si rarement mis en pratique : « Prévenir vaut mieux que guérir ».

At the twentieth meeting of jurists of the German Red Cross in the Federal Republic of Germany, held in Münster last September, the President of the Swiss Red Cross, Professor Hans Haug, spoke on the International Red Cross. Extensive extracts from his paper are given below, as we feel that the problems discussed are of lively and topical interest for all sections of the Red Cross movement.

To mark his seventieth birthday, Jean Pictet, Honorary Vice-President of the ICRC, gave a lecture at the University of Geneva on 16 November 1984 entitled “The formation of international humanitarian law”.

A remarkable summary of the development of humanitarian law in the twentieth century, it concludes with remarks which go well beyond the original subject. They express his thoughts about the difficult relationships between humanitarian imperatives and military and political necessities and between idealism and pragmatism; reference is also made to everyone's responsibility to disseminate and apply a law which stems not only from humanity but also from common sense.

August 24, 1961.—A delegate of the International Committee of the Red Cross visited Algeria in June and July in order to examine, with the French Red Cross in particular, how the aid to the resettled population could be continued and intensified. This relief action applies especially to women and children in the resettlement centres. New plans for distribution provide for the co-operation of mobile teams of nurses and of local committees of the French Red Cross.

Lo que generalmente llamamos «disturbios internos» y «tensiones interiores» (o «disturbios y tensiones interiores») es un conjunto de situaciones que se caracteriza por fenómenos de violencia relacionados con violaciones de los derechos humanos que, a su vez, orìgìnan sufrimientos. Esas situaciones, actualmente frecuentes y presentes en todo el mundo, se caracterizan por enfrentamientos directos entre lasfuerzas del orden y de quienes se oponen al régimen o por toda una gama de tensiones de índole étnica o racial, religiosa o ideológica, económica o social, que también puede determinar la intervención, preventivamente, de las fuerzas del orden.

The decision to devote an issue of the International Review of the Red Cross to a series of articles on the two ad hoc International Criminal Tribunals set up by the United Nations to prosecute persons responsible for serious violations of international humanitarian law in the former Yugoslavia and in Rwanda reflects the increasing importance of these courts both for the general public and for legal experts.

As already announced in International Review, the ICRC is organizing a second session of the Conference of Government Experts on the Reaffirmation and Development of International Humanitarian Law Applicable in Armed Conflicts for the spring of 1972, as it had not been found possible to deal fully with all the subjects at the first session and some topics had not even been broached. The experts had, therefore, unanimously recommended that the work begun at the last Conference should be pursued at a further meeting.

“I Know of no part of jurisprudence or of the humanities to which the institution calling itself the Geneva Committee can be connected”, declared the renowned Russian jurist Fiodor Fiodorovitch de Martens, legal adviser to the Imperial Russian Government, at the Fourth International Conference of Red Cross Societies held in Karlsruhe in September 1887.

No wonder he was puzzled, for although the International Committee is an international institution by reason of its activities and duties, its composition is still that of a private association under Swiss law.

The first issue of the Bulletin international des Sociétés de secours aux militaires blessés (October 1969) contains an appeal by the International Committee for ratification of the Articles of 1868 additional to the 1864 Geneva Convention. It is addressed to the Central Committees of the Relief Societies, with the request that they approach their respective governments on the matter. By the same token, the Committee proposed as recommended reading the work by Gustave Moynier, Etude sur la Convention de Genève, which was described as a guide for use by army officers and doctors to give them a better understanding of the provisions of the 1864 Convention, “to refute the objections of its detractors and, by demonstrating that this instrument represents a victory for civilization, to turn them into zealous supporters”. In the second issue of the Bulletin (January 1870), the Committee asked the Central Committees to what extent States had promulgated penal or other legislation and military ordinances or regulations relating to the stipulations of the Geneva Convention or action by relief societies.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has approached Mr. Cornelio Sommaruga, at present Swiss State Secretary for External Economic Affairs, to succeed Mr. Alexandre Hay, who has expressed the desire to retire from the presidency of the Institution before the end of his third term of office, which expires at the end of 1988.

Mr. Sommaruga has just accepted the ICRC's proposal. He will take up his duties during 1987 on a date to be specified later. Until then President Hay will continue in office full-time.

The President of the German Red Cross in the Federal Republic of Germany addressed the assembly of the Lower Saxony chapter of that Society, held at Goslar on 22 June 1974. He has kindly sent us a copy of his address, which is partly published below for information. The views expressed are solely those of the author.

Hoy resulta poco decir que «el estado del planeta» es sumamente inquietante. «Vivimos en un período de transitión histórica, caracterizado por una crisis de conciencia literalmente explosiva del conflicto entre las actividades humanas y los imperativos del medio ambiente», declaró recientemente la señora Gro Harlem Brundtland, primera ministra de Noruega, que preside la Comisión Mundial sobre el Medio Ambiente y el Desarrollo. Se comienza a librar una batalla decisiva, porque el planeta está efectivamente amenazado.

El accidente de Chernobil, la muerte de los bosques y la contaminatión de las aguas, el recalentamiento de la atmósfera y la amenaza que se cierne sobre la capa de ozono, así como la destrucción de nuestro patrimonio genético son otros tantos fenómenos que ilustran la necesidad de inspirar, apoyar y, llegado el caso, dirigir una acción tendente a proteger el medio ambiente a nivel local, zonal y mundial.

Armed conflicts always have dire effects on the health of the civilian population. Apart from the harm — wounds, burns, asphyxia and radiation — caused directly by weapons of war, the people fall prey to disease because of the disruption of their normal living conditions.

In most cases, it is the latter rather than the former which takes the greatest toll.

Some basic health protection principles are therefore common to all development and disaster situations.