The year 1974 marks the centennial of the International Declaration of Brussels on the Laws and Customs of War. This effort to codify the most important laws of war, undertaken on the initiative of Czar Alexander II of Russia, constituted a decisive stage in the development of the law of war. It is this event which the Committee for the Protection of Human Life in Armed Conflicts, under the patronage of the Belgian Government, proposes to commemorate by an international seminar on the theme “The Concept of International Armed Conflict—New Perspectives”, in December of this year.

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.

“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.

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.

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.

De manera episódica desde 1919 y sistemáticamente desde finales del decenio de los 60, el CICR ha procurado desplegar su acción humanitaria en circunstancias de disturbios y de tensiones interiores y, muy especialmente, proteger y asistir a las personas encarceladas en tales circunstancias, denominadas comúnmente «detenidos políticos».

La línea de conducta del CICR a este respecto fue presentada con motivo de la celebración de la XXIII Conferencia Internacional de la Cruz Roja (Bucarest, 1977), en el marco de un documento titulado «E1 CICR, la Liga y el Informe sobre la Reevaluación del Cometido de la Cruz Roja».

El presente documento es una actualización de la doctrina del CICR en la materia, que tiene en cuenta la evolución cuantitativa y cualitativa de su acción humanitaria en circunstancias que no está cubiertas por los Convenios de Ginebra de 1949, ni por sus Protocolos adicionales de 1977, pero en las que los problemas de índole humanitaria justifican la labor de un organismo independiente como el CICR.

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 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.

On 17 December 1996, the delegate of the International Committee of the Red Cross was one of the 600 guests at a reception hosted by the Japanese ambassador in Lima. When the commando unit of the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (Movimiento Revolucionario Túpac Amaru — MRTA)carried out its spectacular hostage-taking operation and the ICRC delegate made himself known to the commando unit, wondering whether in so doing he was acting as an intermediary was hardly at the forefront of his mind: he was content to take action because the situation so demanded and because the physical integrity of hundreds of people was under threat. I was that delegate. In doing what I did at that moment, I was merely repeating the humanitarian act performed by hundreds of ICRC delegates throughout the world, that of Henry Dunant at Solferino and of many others elsewhere — that is, helping the victims of violence. This is what being a neutral intermediary is all about: placing oneself voluntarily in the midst of a confrontation and lending a helping hand. In that sense, the term “intermediary” is perfectly suited for defining the action of the ICRC per se and its humanitarian base. Within the organization, the term means something more specific, as distinguished from protection and assistance, and designates a function which involves serving as a messenger between conflicting parties, for humanitarian reasons and in the absence of any other intermediary. This is where a certain amount of confusion and a number of difficulties arise, some inherent in the very role of intermediary and others arising from the circumstances themselves.

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.

El Commonwealth de Dominica se adhirió, sin hacer ninguna declaración ni reserva, el 25 de abril de 1996, a los Protocolos adicionales a los Convenios de Ginebra del 12 de agosto de 1949, relativos a la proteccion de las víctimas de los conflictos armados internacionales (Protocolo I) y no intemacionales (Protocolo II), aprobados en Ginebra el 8 de junio de 1977.

De conformidad con sus disposiciones, los Protocolos entrarén en vigor, para el Commonwealth de Dominica, el 25 de octubre de 1996.

Con esta adhesión asciende a 144 el número de Estados Partes en el Protocolo I y a 136 el de Estados Partes en el Protocolo II.

Dissemination of knowledge of the Geneva Conventions is not merely a long-term task—it is a permanent one. One age group succeeds another ; generation succeeds generation ; the students become teachers and forgotten lessons of the past fade into the background of a past which is itself forgotten.

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.

Los derechos humanos y especialmente los derechos civiles y políticos han influenciado la reciente evolución del derecho internacional humanitario. Esta comprobación es válida sobre todo para el Protocolo II, relativo a los conflictos armados no internacionales. El año 1978, en la Conferencia celebrada en Teherán, las Naciones Unidas asociaron por primera vez estas dos ramas del derecho internacional. A partir de ese momento, el derecho internacional humanitario se denomina también «derechos humanos en período de conflicto armado». Esta relación se concretó ulteriormente con la inclusión, en los Protocolos adicionales, de ciertas normas fundamentales, idénticas a las de las Convenciones de los derechos humanos; contribuye a reforzar la protección de la persona humana en las situaciones de conflicto armado.

En el segundo considerando del Preámbulo del Protocolo II se establece una relatión con los derechos humanos, «recordando, asimismo que los instrumentos internacionales relativos a los derechos humanos ofrecen a la persona humana una protectión fundamental«. Se trata de una toma de posición importante, si se tiene en cuenta que la función de un preámbulo es orientar, mediante directrices, la interpretatión de un tratado. Por primera vez, en un instrumento de derecho internacional humanitario, se incluyó una mention explicita a los derechos humanos. Ello no significa necesariamente que no haya habido antes relaciones entre las dos ramas del derecho internacional.