International humanitarian law and human rights law share a common goal, namely to protect the individual and to ensure respect for human dignity. Yet these two branches of international public law each have their own characteristics and origins and have evolved in different ways.

Nevertheless, the troubled aftermath of the Second World War, the unchecked rise of violence and poverty in recent decades and the resulting need for improved protection of the ever-growing number of victims of violations of fundamental human rights have all contributed not only to the evolution of the two branches of law but also to their convergence, like “two poor crutches on which disarmed victims can lean simultaneously”, to quote an expressive image by Karel Vasak. This expert went so far as to estimate in 1984 that “the convergence of the two branches has led to an overlapping both on paper and, increasingly, in practice as well”.

One of the basic principles of the Geneva Conventions and of Protocol I is that the persons protected shall be treated without any adverse distinction, in particular one founded on sex (C. I and II, art. 12; C. III, art. 16; C IV, art. 27; P. I, art. 75) and that women shall in all cases benefit by treatment as favourable as that granted to men (C. III, art. 14).

One of the principles underlying international law applicable in armed conflicts is that no act of war is permitted against the civilian population, consisting, by definition, of persons who take no part in the hostilities.

Until the holocaust of 1939–45, international law gave practically no real protection to the civilian population in the event of war, and was not even intended to do so since up to that time war was considered to be a State activity from which civilians remained aloof. There were, nonetheless, general principles and rules in various international treaties which, in one way or another, related also to the civilian population.

El Reglamento relativo al uso del emblema de la cruz roja y de la media luna roja por las Sociedades Nacionales, aprobado por la XX Conferencia International, celebrada en Viena el año 1965, fue revisado por el Consejo de Delegados de Budapest, en noviembre de 1991. Tras el aplazamiento de la XXVI Conferencia International, el CICR sometió el texto del actual Reglamento a todos los Estados Partes en los Convenios de Ginebra solicitándoles que le comunicaran las eventuates objeciones en un plazo de seis meses. Puesto que no se ha recibido solicitud alguna de modificación, el Reglamento entró en vigor en esa fecha.

Las principals normas relativas al uso del emblema figuran en los Convenios de Ginebra y muchos países las han incluido en la respectiva legislación national, para poder sancionar los abusos, especialmente. En el nuevo Reglamento se puntualizan las diversas modalidades del empleo del signo por las Sociedades Nacionales y sus miembros.

Le problème juridique international soulevé par l'aviation sanitaire en temps de guerre date de 1912; il est né au sein de l'ancienne Ligue nationale aérienne, le 21 novembre 1912, date à laquelle le Comité de contentieux de cette ligue, saisi de ce problème par mes soins, a bien voulu, à ma demande, émettre un vœu tendant à ce que le Gouvernement français prît l'initiative de convoquer une conférence internationale de Croix-Rouge aériénne.

Toute réflexion sur la sécurité doit avoir comme but de préserver la neutralité, l'indépendance et l'impartialité de l'action humanitaire, condition sine qua non de l'aptitude du CICR à protéger et aider les victimes de conflit. Toute intervention humanitaire qui galvaude ces principes fondamentaux rencontre tôt ou tard la méfiance des populations à aider ou est condamnée à la paralysie.