The Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 provide that medical personnel and equipment shall in general be identified by the distinctive emblem of the red cross or red crescent. The Second Geneva Convention, applicable to the victims of conflict at sea, specifies that the exterior surfaces of hospital ships and smaller craft used for medical purposes shall be white and recommends that the parties to the conflict use “the most modern methods” to facilitate identification of medical transports at sea (Art. 43). It is also recommended that medical aircraft should be clearly marked with both the distinctive emblem and their national colours on their lower, upper and lateral surfaces. They should moreover be provided with “any other markings or means of identification” agreed upon between the belligerents from the outbreak or during the course of hostilities (First Convention, Art. 36, and Second Convention, Art. 39).

Los emblemas de la cruz roja y el de la media Itina roja son a la vez lafuerza y la debilidad de nuestro Movimiento.

Son sufuerzaporque son el símbolo visible y respetado del socorro a las víctimas de la guerra que, desde hace 125 años, ha permitido prestar protectión, asistencia y calor humano a millones de heridos, prisioneros, niños, familias, etc., en el marco de los terribles conflictos que han convulsionado nuestro planeta como nunca en su historia. Son su fuerza porque evocan, en el mundo entero, una imagen positiva de humanidady de compasión.

Pero esos emblemas son también ladebilidaddel Movimiento, porque son portadores de división en su seno y le impiden alcanzar la universalidad.

Ante este problema, quisiéamos, naturalmente, rehacer la historia.

El señor Gottfried de Smit, miembro del Comité Intemacional de la Cruz Roja, presentó su renuncia. El CICR ha aceptado con pesar y expresa al señor de Smit su agradecimiento por su valiosa colaboración. El señor de Smit fue nombrado miembro del Consejo Ejecutivo del CICR en 1973, y miembro de la Asamblea del CICR a comienzos de 1974.

Au plus fort de la mêlée des armé'es de l'Entente et de celles des Empires centraux, M. A. Pillet, le professeur bien connu de droit international à Paris, a publié une importante étude sur les Conventions de la Haye de 1899 et de 1907 et l'application qu'elles ont reçues avant et pendant la guerre.

In ratifying the 1977 Protocols additional to the Geneva Conventions of 1949, Sweden pledged to inform and instruct the authorities responsible for the country's policy of “total defence” and their personnel, as well as the civilian population, on the rules of international law.

Dealing with a question of this breadth may seem an impossible task. Furthermore, it would certainly not be intelligent to claim to have found the solution to the problem of peace and humanity. The first mark of intelligence is precisely knowing one's limits, and it is clear that we can only try to guess at potential answers to such a vast question; to do this we would need to look at the past so as better to understand the future.

Having reached the tenth anniversary of the Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May be Deemed to be Excessively Injurious or to have Indiscriminate Effects, adopted on 10 October 1980 (hereinafter referred to as the 1980 Convention), we can measure the progress brought about by the treaty within the limits which the law sets for the suffering caused by war. Paradoxically, however, we are witnessing an increasing number of situations which, in form at least, fall outside the scope of application of the 1980 Convention, namely non-international armed conflicts.

Yet international humanitarian law on methods and means of combat includes general rules applicable to all armed conflict, and hence to non-international armed conflicts too. The provisions of the 1980 Convention are an application of those general rules to the means of combat which the treaty is intended to regulate. The question thus arises whether some of the rules of conduct laid down in the 1980 Convention are applicable to all armed conflicts, whether international or non-international. In the present study, we shall attempt to reply at least to some extent to that question.

The Malaysian Red Crescent Society (MRCS) has provided all facilities for the care and maintenance of Vietnamese Boat People (VBP) since the first landing on 4 May 1975 of 47 VBP, on a small island off the northeast coast of the Malay Peninsula. Since then, over a continuous period of 19 years more than 250,000 VBP have landed in Malaysia and all of them except about 6,500 have either been resettled in third countries or have been repatriated to Viet Nam. The remaining 6,500 are housed in two camps, located at Sungai Besi and Cheras, each a few kilometres outside the city of Kuala Lumpur.

The closing years of this century will be challenging ones indeed for all Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Vulnerability is increasing for much of the world's population as political and economic changes accelerate. Constraints on the resources that may be applied to meet the needs of the vulnerable are also becoming more numerous.

Geneva Conventions. — When in June 1965 the ICRC addressed an appeal to the belligerents on the subject of the Geneva Conventions for the protection of the victims of war, the Republic of Vietnam replied that it proposed applying these international treaties to which it is a Party (as is the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the United States of America). It has accordingly had disseminated amongst its armed forces a summary of conduct to be observed towards prisoners, in accordance with the Geneva Conventions. Similar instructions have been given to the American and Allied forces.

The promotion of world peace, although of concern to the Red Cross, was for a long time outside the purview of its programme of action. However, after the First World War the International Red Cross, sharing the hopes of the nations, declared its intention to work thenceforth, not only in time of peace, but also for peace. Since that time, nearly all International Conferences of the Red Cross have adopted resolutions on the contribution which the Red Cross could make to this noble cause.

The strength of the Red Cross and Red Crescent resides in its structures, in its humanitarian mandate as defined in the Geneva Conventions and in the values enshrined in international humanitarian law. The Movement's Fundamental Principles further define its aims and give widely accepted guidelines for its activities. The National Societies with their local branches and volunteers provide the physical network that completes the structure and now covers the entire world.

Following a mission carried out in December 1969 by Dr. J.-F. de Rougemont, accompanied by Mr. J.-P. Maunoir, assistant director and Miss L. Simonius, delegate, in the clinics of the Warsaw and Gdansk Academies of Medicine and at the headquarters of the Polish Red Cross in the capital, new compensation claims for Polish victims of pseudo-medical experiments in Nazi concentration camps during the Second World War were laid before the Neutral Arbitration Commission.

Au cours d'une même année, 1978, ont été Célébrés le 15e anniversaire de la naissance d'Henry Dunant, le 30e anniversaire de la Déclaration universelle des droits de l'homme et les 25 ans de la Convention européenne des droits de l'homme, tandis qu'entraient en vigueur la Convention américaine des droits de l'homme de 1969 et les Protocoles additionnels aux Conventions de Genève de 1977. La conjonction de ces événements mémorables invite à réfléchir aux rapports entre le droit international humanitaire et les droits de l'homme.