bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
After the XIVth International Conference on Social Welfare
Authors: Esnard Monique
Published: January 2010

The congress is held by some writers to be the present day antidote to modern man's isolation. Must this be seen as the reason for the constantly large participation in International Conferences on social welfare, in spite of the proliferation of seminars and meetings ?

Undoubtedly social workers and representatives of allied professions are not immune from this modern trend. Thus, every two years, when the International Council on Social Welfare organises its international forum there is a veritable “Migration” of office holders in the social welfare field. They come from all quarters to pool, for a week, their experiences and ideas on the selected theme.
The Changing Role of the Nurse
Authors: Mussallem Hefen K.
Published: January 2010

Today, the practice of nursing and the education of nurses are going through the most exciting period in modern times. Throughout a long and turbulent history, nursing has faced almost insurmountable difficulties. In the main, these have stemmed from an attempt to maintain stability while conducting innovation, and from an attempt to change while retaining the useful part of the old. But to their credit, nurses have attempted to keep pace with the needs made by a rapidly changing social structure. It is these present needs that now should force nursing into a new, enlarged, and more crucial role in the health professions.
Lagos: ICRC Tracing Service
Authors: Ringgenberg Cécile M.
Published: January 2010

In June we received from Miss Cécile M. Ringgenberg, Tracing Officer at the ICRC Tracing Service in Nigeria, an article which will no doubt interest our readers, as it describes an unspectacular but very humanitarian activity prescribed in the IVth Geneva Convention.
The Centenary of our Publication
Authors: Naville Marcel A.
Published: January 2010

With the first number of the Bulletin international des Societes de secours aux militaires blesses edited in Geneva in October 1869 by the International Committee of Aid to the Wounded, not yet known as the International Committee of the Red Cross, there originated a publication which in 1919 was to become the Revue internationale de la Croix-Rouge, now widespread throughout the world and in which the activities, researches and intentions of our movement are described. We are therefore celebrating both the fiftieth aniversary of the Review's founding and also the centenary of the Bulletin to which it has succeded without any interruption.
A Glimpse into the Past: Fifty years of the “Bulletin”
Authors: Lossier J.-G.
Published: January 2010

Glancing through the 196 numbers of the Bulletin international des Sociétés de la Croix-Rouge certain major themes stand out significantly. Some of these were already described in its first issue of October 1869, then can be met with again throughout the years until this last number of October 1918 devoted almost entirely to wartime activities in 28 belligerent or neutral countries and to interventions on behalf of victims. The account which follows, however incomplete it may be, will at all events describe the successes, hopes and preoccupations of a decisive period in the history of our movement.
The Flame of Charity
Authors: Schazmann Paul-Emile
Published: January 2010

Anything concerning Henry Dunant is of interest to members of the Red Cross. We are therefore particularly grateful to Mr. Paul-Emile Schazmann, for many years conservator of manuscripts at the Swiss National Library, for having made available, for the centenary issue of our Review, unpublished writings by Dunant on facts which have so far received no attention. (Ed.)
Aid to the Victims of the Civil War in Nigeria
Authors: Freymond Jacques
Published: January 2010

… Why and how did the International Committee of the Red Cross commit itself? The reasons for its commitment were clearly expressed by the Delegate-General of the ICRC for Africa, even before the break was complete between the government of Nigeria and the leaders of the Eastern province. Concluding a report giving; an account, at the end of 1966, of the disturbances by which Nigeria had been torn during the year, Mr. Georges Hoffmann—under the title “Disaster relief in case of man-made disaster”—defined the task he wanted the ICRC to undertake: “A holocaust is taking place; there are victims, and care must be given to those who are not dead. As in the case of natural disasters, there must be teams of surgeons, supplies of surgical equipment, medical supplies, foodstuffs and blankets, and there must be means of transport, particularly ambulances and vans”. In short, it was necessary to set up in Geneva, in agreement with the League of Red Cross Societies, an organization which would make it possible to confront those “man-made disasters” similar to the one which the League had already created in Nigeria to deal with natural disasters.
Development of International Humanitarian Law
Authors: Naville Marcel A.
Published: January 2010

The XXIst International Conference of the Red Cross, meeting at Istanbul in September 1969, devoted its Resolution XIII to the reaffirmation and development of the laws and customs applicable in armed conflicts. That resolution, the text of which is appended hereto, assigns to the International Committee of the Red Cross some heavy tasks, in particular that of drawing up proposals in that field for submission to governments.
The Red Cross and Biological and Chemical Weapons
Authors: Mirimanoff Jean
Published: January 2010

It is not the purpose of this article to develop or settle the delicate problems arising from the Geneva Protocol of 17 June 1925 for the Prohibition of the use in war of asphyxiating, poisonous or other gases and of bacteriological methods of warfare; it merely outlines, on the occasion of the forty-fifth anniversary of the Protocol, the role of the Red Cross in the development of law and the work now being carried out by the main international organizations.
Teaching Solidarity
Authors: Laroque Pierre.
Published: January 2010

The author of the following important article is president of the Section sociale du Conseil d'Etat français. When, in 1968, he was awarded the René Sand prize at the fourteenth International Conference of the International Council on Social Welfare he delivered a speech on “Human Rights, Social Work and Social Policy”.

The Red Cross was represented not only because many of the delegates were members of our movement but also because the ceremony recalled the memory of Rene Sand, who had been a leading light of the Belgian Red Cross. International Review has published several of his writings, one of which he concluded with the following words revealing the active idealism which was typical of him: “The human instinct, which sometimes goes astray but is more often led astray, tends towards goodwill and peace, not towards war”.

We are grateful to the René Sand prize-winner for having also contributed to our publication.
The Civil War in Jordan: An Episode in the Life of an ICRC Delegate
Authors: Jaquinet Louis
Published: January 2010

We know what work is carried out by the ICRC delegates in Jordan ; we know that, thanks to them and their intervention, as soon as it was possible the relief mission of the ICRC, aided by the National Societies, could be started and developed. One of the delegates in Amman during the civil war, Mr. Louis Jaquinet, relates below some incidents in the danger-fraught life of a delegate during a crisis.
During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871: The Birth of Red Cross Solidarity
Authors: Segesvary Victor
Published: January 2010

1870–1871: the Franco-Prussian war! A terrible event which shook all Europe; the slaughter of battle, blood, suffering, hundreds of thousands of prisoners, privation both for civilian populations and the military forces—horrors which, nevertheless, gave rise to an entirely new phenomenon of capital importance in the history of humanity. It was a war which marked the beginning of the great universal movement of Red Cross solidarity.
The “Memoires” of Henry Dunant
Authors: J.-G. L.
Published: January 2010

In our December 1969 issue we called attention to the first volume of the “Henry Dunant Institute Collection” containing “Un Souvenir de Solférino” and some of Dunant's unpublished writings under the general title “L'Avenir sanglant”. The collection has now been enriched with a new volume entitled “Mémoires” which the Henry Dunant Institute is editing in French, jointly with the Éditions de l'Age d'homme, Lausanne. The book was compiled and presented by Professor Bernard Gagnebin, Dean of the Geneva University Faculty of Arts. He undertook the selection of the manuscripts—102 exercise books—found in three boxes deposited with the Geneva University Public Library. This was a difficult and delicate task, as Professor Gagnebin himself admits in a lengthy introduction: “the Mémoires were not in the form of a continuous text but of an unfinished work. We reconstituted them from more than thirty exercise books and we divided them into thirty-four chapters”.
The Swing of the Pendulum. A hundred years in the development of humanitarian law—1874–1973
Authors: Pictet Jean
Published: January 2010

The concept that man must be protected against the ills of war is not a recent one. It may be likened to a clear spring gushing out from time immemorial, increasing gradually in volume as it surges forth until its swollen waters are borne down upon us today. The sum of efforts that idea has aroused has grown, parallel to the rise of civilization with which it is indissolubly linked.
Constance Teichmann - A Great Lady of the Red Cross
Authors: Vandekerckhove Carl
Published: January 2010

One hundred and fifty years ago, on June 16, 1824, Constance Teichmann was born in Antwerp. Hei father was governor of the Province of Antwerp. Her mother was very active in social work: she founded a society to provide for needy widows, and an association of Christian mothers; she helped to estabJish nursery schools, Sunday schools and schools of lacemaking, and she set up an orphanage for girls.
Grants in aid from the Maurice de Madre French Fund
Authors: Hay Alexandre
Published: January 2010

In the February 1976 issue (No. 179) of International Review of the Red Cross (page 70), the International Committee of the Red Cross published the regulations of the Maurice de Madre French Fund. The aim of this Fund is to provide assistance, by paying for rest and convalescent cures, for persons of the permanent or temporary staff of international or national Red Cross institutions, such as delegates or nurses who, in the course of their work or during war operations or natural disasters, have suffered injury and have thereby found themselves in straitened circumstances or in reduced health (Art. 2 of the Regulations).
The Reuniting of Families in Europe during and after the Second World War
Authors: Beckh H. G.
Published: January 2010

It is necessary, first of all, to define what is understood here by the expression “reuniting of families”.

In this article, the term is used in a narrow sense. It refers to the humanitarian protection given, on an international plane, for the reuniting of the members of one and the same family, who have been separated from each other against their will, as a result of external events—international wars, civil wars, internal disturbances, grave political tension—and who have ended up in different countries on either side of a frontier which they find impossible to cross. In most cases, the difficulties involved for such persons to obtain permits allowing them to leave a particular country and enter another are practically insurmountable. It is such persons who are referred to here and it is to them that the ICRC endeavours to bring its assistance.
The Fundamental Principles of the Red Cross (II)
Authors: Pictet Jean
Published: January 2010

Francis Bacon once wrote that a man who does not treat his neighbour humanely is not truly human. The ideal of the Red Cross is much greater than its own action. It does not therefore limit itself to assistance and protection, but demands that everyone must respect the human person, his life, liberty and happiness—in other words, everything that constitutes his existence. This must naturally correspond to the requirements of public order and, in wartime, of military necessity.
Voluntary service in society today
Authors: Meurant Jacques
Published: January 2010

“Voluntary work, less and less an activity undertaken by a small minority for the benefit of the majority, is becoming a natural means for the majority to participate in the life of the community, through pressure groups or directly influencing their environment or by other means.”

This definition, in a British Government paper to the United Nations Environment Conference in Stockholm in June 1972, well summarizes the significance and scope of voluntary work in society today and the way in which the concept of voluntary service has evolved.
Voluntarism within the Red Cross
Authors: Tavel Marion
Published: January 2010

“Tutti fratelli”, cried with emotion the women of Castiglione when, with Henry Dunant, they tended the wounded after the battle of Solferino. In this cry from the heart, this testimony to human solidarity in distress and to voluntary assistance to men who surfer, is to be found the origin of a movement which has so widely expanded during the years and which is called the Red Cross
The Fundamental Principles of the Red Cross (III)
Authors: Pictet Jean
Published: January 2010

We have said that this requirement is absolute. However, in exceptional circumstances, it may be necessary to make a choice; for instance, when a doctor or nurse, for want of medicines in sufficient quantities, is only in a position to cure a certain number of patients in his care. This is frequently a tragedy for the Red Cross, comparable to that of a raft which will sink if any more castaways cling to it. Can one, in all conscience, use an oar and rap the knuckles of human beings, children perhaps, whose misfortune it is to have not arrived first ? I know of several cases where doctors have only treated the sick, wounded or starving who still had a chance of survival, leaving those for whom there was no longer any hope to die. All this represents a matter of conscience, as it is called, because the decision must be left to the individual responsible, who will reach it after deep reflection and carefully weighing the pros and cons.
The Fundamental Principles of the Red Cross (V)
Authors: Pictet Jean
Published: January 2010

The principle goes on to state that the Red Cross may not take sides in hostilities. This refers to neutrality in the military domain, and this is indeed the initial understanding of neutrality.

The affirmation is an obvious one, but it is nonetheless essential. Some people have found it too laconic, even curt. It is true enough that the expression should apply to all forms of conflict and not only to military operations in the narrow sense. Furthermore, it should cover not only conflicts between nations but also civil wars and internal disorders. It might accordingly be better to say, the Red Cross may not take sides in armed conflicts of any kind.
Islam and international humanitarian law
Authors: Ashoor Yadh Ben
Published: January 2010

Contemporary political analyses and studies concerning Islam often bear the mark of ethical values and judgements that obtain in the cultural context of the authors.

In this respect, two main tendencies can be discerned. The first, which we might call “Western-centred”, is to be found in the works of specialists in Oriental or Islamic studies who have been trained in the West and are thence impregnated with its culture. When analysing Islam, they judge it on the basis of the moral or political norms pertaining in the West. The second, which could be characterised as “apologetic”, generally finds its reflection in the writings of Moslem thinkers who, reacting against the first school's attacks on Islam, try to glorify it and, in particular, set out to identify in Islam all the cultural notions and inventions of the modern world, in other words, the Western world. According to this second school, Islam is, for example, the inventor and disseminator of democratic government, socialism, the separation of powers, human rights and humanitarian law.
The Fundamental Principles of the Red Cross (VII)
Authors: Pictet Jean
Published: January 2010

The English title “Voluntary service”, which heads this chapter of the Proclamation and of this Commentary, is better than the French title “Caractère bénévole” (“Benevolent character”) which was adopted. In modern French language, the term “bénévoles” refers to persons who work without being paid, who donate their services.
New code for the protection of civilian population and property during armed conflict
Authors: Gloşcă Ionel
Published: January 2010

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.
Adoption of the red crescent by the Islamic Republic of Iran
Authors: Beer H. , Moreillon J.
Published: January 2010

On 4 July 1980 the Islamic Republic of Iran informed the International Committee of the Red Cross and the League of Red Cross Societies of its decision to adopt the red crescent instead of the red lion and sun as the distinctive sign of its armed forces' medical service. As a result, the Iranian National Society has changed its name and emblem. It is henceforth the “Iranian Red Crescent Society”.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (II)
Authors: Durand André
Published: January 2010

In the years of transition and change between 1918 and 1939, the only constant was the contrast with the turmoil of the world wars which preceded and followed that period. In this passage from one world conflict to the next, three stages, not only in the evolution of the world but also in that of the ICRC, may he distinguished.
Language rights in international humanitarian law
Authors: Tabory Mala
Published: January 2010

War, more than peace, is likely to give rise to circumstances in which soldiers and civilians find themselves against their will in a setting where a foreign language is employed. In addition, they may be forced to have contact on their own territory with people using another tongue. Therefore in the context of war, the protection of basic language rights is perhaps even more crucial than in peacetime in easing the fate of those involved. One of the ways humanitarian law seeks to protect the victims of war is by guaranteeing their right to communicate in a language which they easily understand. The purpose of this study is to analyze linguistic rights in time of war.
The ICRC and traditional Khmer medicine
Authors: Hiegel J. P.
Published: January 2010

In October and November 1979 many Khmers fled from their villages and sought refuge in camps in Thailand or along the Khmer-Thai border. The ICRC and other humanitarian organizations, international or private, had to provide for the needs of a sudden influx of people uprooted from their homes, exhausted by famine, suffering, fear, sickness and the ravages of war. The first priorities in such a situation are to supply the basic hygienic facilities, adequate food, water and shelter of some sort, all indispensable for survival. But disease and death are an ever-present threat and have to be resisted. This, then, was the task of the medical teams sent out by the ICRC and the National Societies of the Red Cross, and of many other groups belonging to other organizations who came to help the refugees. An overall coordination of the medical aid was indispensable; responsibility for this was assumed by the ICRC.
The ICRC and the world today - Address by Mr. Alexandre Hay, President of the ICRC, at the opening meeting of the Twenty-fourth International Red Cross Conference
Authors: Hay Alexandre
Published: January 2010

Since the honour devolves upon me in my capacity as President of the International Committee of the Red Cross to take the floor at this point of the opening session of the Twenty-fourth International Red Cross Conference, I will make use of this opportunity to express all the gratitude of the ICRC to the Philippine Red Cross which, with the generous assistance of the government of this country, has prepared, organized and welcomed these sessions of the movement of the Red Cross in this marvellous setting. And I wish also to express my greetings to the people of the Philippines whose reputation for hospitality is so strikingly confirmed today.
The reuniting of families in Europe during and after the Second World War (III)
Authors: Beckh H. G.
Published: January 2010

During “Operation Link”, which was actively led by the ICRC as part of the overall family reunification operation, some 47,000 Germans and “ethnic Germans” (Volksdeutsche) were transferred from Poland to the Federal Republic of Germany by the end of 1949. This operation was focused on family separations that were a direct result of the war.
Recognition of the Tonga Red Cross Society
Authors: Hay Alexandre
Published: January 2010

We have the honour to inform you that the International Committee of the Red Cross, on 15 October 1981, officially recognized the Tonga I Red Cross Society.
Grants from the Maurice de Madre French Fund
Authors: Hay Alexandre
Published: January 2010

In its Circular No. 512, dated 20 November 1978, the International Committee of the Red Cross communicated to the National Societies the conditions under which applications for grants could be made in aid of their delegates or nurses who, in the course of their relief work during war operations or natural disasters, had suffered injury and had thereby found themselves in straitened circumstances or in reduced health (article 2 of the Regulations of the Maurice de Madre French Fund, adopted on 19 December 1974 by the ICRC Assembly).
Identification of Hospital Ships and Ships protected by the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949
Authors: Eberlin P.
Published: January 2010

The Second Geneva Convention of 12 August 1949 for the Amelioration of the Condition of Wounded, Sick and Shipwrecked Members of Armed Forces at Sea received its baptism of fire in 1982, during the conflict in the south Atlantic. The author of this article was present as one of the members of the ICRC delegation. This article is based largely on his experiences at the time and on the thoughts and considerations to which they have given rise.
The protection of journalists engaged in dangerous professional missions
Authors: Gasser Hans-Peter
Published: January 2010

“Death of four journalists in El Salvador”, “Six journalists reported missing”, “Release of three journalists detained on spying charges”—these are just some of the headlines of recent dispatches calling to mind the problem which we will be dealing with in this article: journalists who do their job in situations of armed conflict run risks. What provisions does public international law make to protect them and to facilitate the exercise of their professional activity?
The ICRC and some of its present tasks
Authors: Hay Alexandre
Published: January 2010

You have once again kindly invited the International Committee of the Red Cross to take part in your annual conference. We greatly appreciate the honour shown to our institution and the expression of confidence which your invitation represents, and I wish to thank you most sincerely.
Twenty-ninth award of the Florence Nightingale Medal
Authors: Hay Alexandre
Published: January 2010

In its Circular No. 523 of 25 August 1982, the International Committee of the Red Cross had invited the Central Committees of National Societies to send in the names of nurses and voluntary aids who are active members or regular helpers of a National Society or of an affiliated medical or nursing institution, whom they judged qualified to receive the Florence Nightingale Medal.
Origin and Evolution of the Statutes of the International Red Cross
Authors: Durand André
Published: January 2010

The first Statutes of the International Red Cross date back to 1928. Until then, the International Red Cross had no constitution.

It should not be deduced from this that the subject had not been considered. The First International Conference of the Red Cross (Paris, 1867) and the Second (Berlin, 1869) studied the question of the international organization of the Red Cross. Deferring consideration of the topic to a later session, they confirmed the ICRC in the tasks assigned it by Article 10 of the Resolutions of the 1963 Conference:

“The exchange of communications between the Committees of the various countries shall be made for the time being through the intermediary of the Geneva Committee.”
The ICRC and the Future: Five major challenges of the year 2000 for an organization in its second century
Authors: Moreillon Jacques
Published: January 2010

1) On some simple truths by way of introduction to arouse the interest of the reader

— The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), as an organization, has no rights of its own; the only ones it exercises are those of the silent victims in whose name it speaks.

— Were it not the defender of the fundamental principles of the Red Cross, of which it is the guardian, the ICRC would be just one more voluntary agency, with a small budget.
Recognition of the Red Cross Society of the Republic of Zimbabwe
Authors: Hay Alexandre
Published: January 2010

We have the pleasure of informing you of the official recognition of the Red Cross Society of the Republic of Zimbabwe by the International Committee of the Red Cross. This recognition, which took effect on 7 September 1983, brings to 131 the number of National Society members of the International Red Cross.
Humanitarian Action: Protection and Assistance
Authors: Hocké Jean-Pierre
Published: January 2010

At a time when so many tragic events are taking place in so many parts of the world, I do not think that your Commission would be satisfied with a technical account on the nature and conditions of humanitarian assistance. It would seem pointless because it would be outside the context of tragic reality. Let us think of what is happening in Lebanon, the large-scale fighting that could start up again at any time on the Planalto in Angola, the fate of the Afghan and Khmer people—to cite only those few examples.
The Fundamental Principles of the Red Cross and Peace—Significance of the principles for the spirit of peace
Authors: Pictet Jean
Published: January 2010

Since life began on earth, creatures have struggled against creatures. Through all ages, man has groaned under the sword and the yoke. The pages of history are stained with blood. Everywhere we see only slaughter, torture, oppression. Why?

The famous physicist, Albert Einstein, haunted by the spectre of war, asked this question of Sigmund Freud, the famous psychologist, another man of genius.
Can the Red Cross contribute to safeguarding peace?
Authors: Haug Hans
Published: January 2010

Can the Red Cross help to maintain peace and should it not, alongside its humanitarian role, also fulfil a mission of peace? This is far from being a new consideration, raised by recent developments in the peace movement and by demonstrations in favour of peace.

Whether the Red Cross, by its very nature, is a factor for peace; whether its humanitarian work should finally result in eliminating war, are questions as old as the idea of the Red Cross itself. Very early on, Henry Dunant declared that it was not enough to relieve the suffering of victims of war but that war itself should be banned.
Protection of Children in International Humanitarian Law
Authors: Plattner Denise
Published: January 2010

The legal protection of children was introduced into international humanitarian law after the Second World War. Experience during that conflict had, in fact, pointed to the urgent need to draw up an instrument of public international law for protecting civilian population in wartime. The results of the ICRC's efforts in this field led to the adoption of the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the protection of civilian persons in time of war. From that time on, children, as members of the civilian population, were entitled to benefit from the application of that Convention. Moreover, the first international humanitarian law regulations concerning armed conflicts not of an international character, contained in article 3, common to the four 1949 Geneva Conventions, were drawn up at the 1949 Diplomatic Conference. Here again, children were protected, in the same way as all “persons taking no active part in the hostilities”.
Protection of the civilian population and the prohibition of starvation as a method of warfare: Draft texts on International humanitarian assistance
Authors: Macalister-Smith Peter
Published: January 2010

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.
Health protection in armed conflicts
Authors: Russbach Rémi
Published: January 2010

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.
Thirteen years' experience in fitting war amputees with artificial limbs
Authors: Garachon Alain
Published: January 2010

From its very beginnings the ICRC has been concerned with the war disabled and has done what it can to help them. After the Second World War it was involved in orthopaedic activities in various countries, such as Finland, Viet Nam, Jordan, Hungary, Algeria, Morocco, Israel, Egypt, Nigeria, Somalia and Yemen.
International health assistance in relief operations: preparing local health personnel to meet the challenge
Authors: de Ville de Goyet Claude
Published: January 2010

Disasters are not merely very large accidents. They imply complex public health problems that must be resolved under difficult circumstances: society's normal coping mechanisms are disrupted; the high visibility and critical coverage provided by the mass media make the situation politically sensitive; logistic nightmares abound; the multi-agency response from outside the affected area is often poorly coordinated. In short, decision-making in a climate of uncertainty is the norm. Information management, not the medical management of patients, is often the main challenge facing health managers and volunteers in the initial or relief stage of a disaster.
Tribute to Alexandre Hay
Authors: Sommaruga Cornelio
Published: January 2010

Alexandre Hay bore the last few months of his illness, which he knew was extremely grave, with lucidity and fortitude. He had full confidence in his doctors but as a deeply religious man he knew that, while our duty as human beings is to strive for success in what we do, the final word lies with the Creator. He never made a show of his religious conviction, but at the hour of reckoning did not hesitate to affirm his unreserved submission to God's will.
Dissemination of international humanitarian law in Ecuador
Authors: Zeas Ricardo Camacho
Published: January 2010

International humanitarian law is the body of rules (the four 1949 Geneva Conventions and their two Additional Protocols of 1977) governing the rights and obligations of the belligerents in war.

In signing and later ratifying the Conventions and their Protocols, the States party thereto undertake not only to respect and ensure respect for humanitarian law in all circumstances, but also to disseminate the relevant texts as widely as possible in time of peace as in time of war, among both the armed forces and police and the civilian population. This is stipulated in Articles 47, 48, 127 and 144 of the four Geneva Conventions respectively, which also require States to include the study of humanitarian law in programmes of military instruction. Moreover, States are duty-bound to incorporate the provisions of humanitarian law in their internal legislation.
“Humanitarian ambition”
Authors: Maurice Frédéric
Published: January 2010

A few hours before leaving for Sarajevo last May, Frédéric Maurice let us have the final pages of an article for theReview.He wanted to mull over his text and polish it, but fate decided otherwise, since he lost his life in tragic circumstances on 19 May 1992, on the outskirts of Sarajevo.
The Spanish School of the new law of nations
Authors: Villa Sergio Moratiel
Published: January 2010

Pain and suffering are as old as mankind, but so are compassion and clemency. In whatever mythology, the god of war is not always cruel, vengeful and ferocious. There have always been good Samaritans — even when the parable was first told it was spoken in the past tense. The history of humanitarianism runs parallel to that of mankind. Cruelty and kindness are opposites but inseparable.
The protection of displaced persons in non-international armed conflicts
Authors: Plattner Denise
Published: January 2010

In recent years a number of institutions, in particular non-governmental organizations, have brought their attention to bear on the plight of people displaced within national borders. Prompted by their interest in the protection of human rights, and in keeping with the charitable nature of their work, they have focused the international spotlight on the situation of those who leave their homes in a context marked by political violence. The international community has thus been made aware of two things simultaneously: first, that countries affected by internal armed conflicts have a large number of displaced persons, and second, that armed clashes often result in large-scale population movements. The displacement of minority communities can even become a deliberate policy.
The 1923 Hague Rules of Air Warfare —A contribution to the development of international law protecting civilians from air attack
Authors: Hanke Heinz Marcus
Published: January 2010

Historical events since 1939 and the only partially completed codification of the law of air warfare have made it one of the most controversial areas of the law of war. Though Protocol I additional to the Geneva Conventions does contain provisions governing air warfare, it has not yet assumed its due significance owing to the hesitancy shown in ratifying it. All the more importance must therefore be attributed to the historical development of such rules.
International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights Law
Authors: Doswald-Beck Louise , Vité Sylvain
Published: January 2010

International humanitarian law is increasingly perceived as part of human rights law applicable in armed conflict. This trend can be traced back to the United Nations Human Rights Conference held in Tehran in 1968 which not only encouraged the development of humanitarian law itself, but also marked the beginning of a growing use by the United Nations of humanitarian law during its examination of the human rights situation in certain countries or during its thematic studies. The greater awareness of the relevance of humanitarian law to the protection of people in armed conflict, coupled with the increasing use of human rights law in international affairs, means that both these areas of law now have a much greater international profile and are regularly being used together in the work of both international and non-governmental organizations.
Underwater acoustic identification of hospital ships
Authors: Eberlin Philippe
Published: January 2010

At the Twenty-fifth International Conference of the Red Cross (Geneva, 1986) the ICRC presented its report on the identification of medical transports, including the action taken to implement Resolution VIII of the previous International Conference. The report stressed that in a naval conflict the protection of medical transports at sea largely depended on the technical means of identification available.

By adopting its Resolution III entitled “Identification of medical transports”, the Twenty-fifth Conference recognized the need for continuous efforts to ensure that the means used to signal and identify medical personnel, units and transports keep pace with technical advances.
Health Care Ten years after Alma Ata
Authors: Kisselev Andrei K. , Korneyev Yuri E.
Published: January 2010

In 1977 the Thirtieth World Health Assembly decided that the main social goal of governments and WHO should be “the attainment by all citizens of the world by the year 2000 of a level of health that will permit them to lead a socially and economically productive life”.

The International Conference on Primary Health Care (PHC), meeting in Alma Ata, USSR, in 1978, asserted that health is a human right and that health care should be accessible, affordable and socially relevant.
Scientific Symposium on the Precursors of the Red Cross (Geneva, 26-28 October 1988)
Authors: J. M.
Published: January 2010

To mark the 125th anniversary of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, the Henry Dunant Society organized a two-day symposium in Geneva from 26 to 28 October 1988 on the direct precursors of the Red Cross.

For three days, historians and people working on the theoretical and practical side of the Red Cross and other academic and private institutions sought to discover or rediscover women and men who, especially in the nineteenth century, had the same concerns as the “Committee of Five” for wounded and sick soldiers and for prisoners of war and a desire to see both the wounded and those caring for them declared neutral and standing relief societies created. In short, the purpose of the symposium was to ascertain the influence of that humanitarian sensibility which found tangible expression with the founding of the Red Cross in 1863.
Assistance to the victims of armed conflicts
Authors: Kalshoven Frits
Published: January 2010

From 22 to 24 June 1988, an international conference was held in The Hague, Netherlands, on “Humanitarian Assistance in Armed Conflict”. It was organized by the University of Leiden's Red Cross Chair of International Humanitarian Law, together with the National Red Cross Societies of Belgium (Flemish Community) and The Netherlands.

The conference, which was attended by some 180 participants (with Her Royal Highness, Princess Margriet of The Netherlands, as the most distinguished among them) was opened by the Dutch Minister for Development Co-operation, Mr. Pieter Bukman. Professor René Jean Dupuy, professor of International Law at the College de France, Paris, gave the keynote speech at the opening session. Speakers during the three working sessions of the conference included representatives of the ICRC, the League, UNHCR, Médecins sans Frontières, Médecins du Monde, CEBEMO (the Dutch Catholic Organization for Joint Financing of Development Programmes), Save the Children Fund, Oxfam UK, and the academic world.
The Struggle Against Torture: Towards greater Effectiveness
Authors: The Review
Published: January 2010

Torture is prohibited by public international law and explicitly forbidden by domestic legislation in many countries. Yet the least that can be said is that it continues to be practised today, whether by the use of violence or by increasingly insidious methods, more and more frequently involving children. To such an extent that in 1976, realizing the magnitude and seriousness of the problem, the ICRC felt obliged to speak out and explain the efforts it deploys to combat torture. And perhaps never since the end of the seventies have so many governmental and non-governmental international organizations been so active in the fight against torture.
Efforts to eliminate torture through international law
Authors: Haug Hans
Published: January 2010

The idea of “respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all” has been disseminated throughout the world since the Second World War and has influenced both international law and national legislation in many States. Nevertheless, torture, that most fundamental assault on the human person, has continued over the years to be practised, either systematically or occasionally, in many countries. Torture, in which a person is intentionally subjected to extreme physical pain or emotional distress, is used mainly to elicit information, break the will to resist, intimidate, humiliate and degrade. It is also used to mete out (illegal) punishment for real or supposed wrongdoings.2 Techniques of torture include withholding food and preventing sleep, abrupt alternation of extreme cold and heat or silence and noise, total isolation, causing mental confusion and distress through misinformation or other means, the use of brute force- sometimes resulting in permanent mutilation- rape, electric shocks, the application of chemicals and Pharmaceuticals, finally death threats.
The Swedish Red Cross Centre for the rehabilitation of tortured refugees
Authors: Wikberg Britt
Published: January 2010

In 1985 the Swedish Red Cross opened a Centre for the Rehabilitation of Tortured Refugees in Stockholm. It did so on the bases of a thorough study of what had been done elsewhere in the world, especially in Denmark where the first centre of this kind was established.

Sweden accepts about 15,000 refugees each year. The largest groups come from Chile, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Ethiopia, Turkey. Many of them have been exposed to different forms of torture. Hospitals, the social welfare system, lawyers, immigration officers — none of these has any experience in dealing with the consequences. Now all sectors of Swedish society have to meet the needs of these new citizens. Lack of knowledge and understanding can, unintentionally, lead to callous treatment. It was therefore natural for the Swedish Red Cross to start collecting and developing existing knowledge on how to deal with the effects of torture.
Synopsis VII—Combatant and prisoner-of-war status
Authors: de Preux Jean
Published: January 2010

Only the members of the armed forces of a Party to a conflict (other than medical personnel, chaplains and military personnel engaged in civil defence) are combatants (Hague Regulations, Art. 1 and 3; P. I, Art. 43 and 67).

Combatants are entitled to take direct part in the hostilities (P. I, Art. 43), i.e. to commit acts of war which are intended by their nature or their purpose to hit specifically the combatants and other military objectives of the enemy armed forces.

Any combatant who falls into the power of an adverse Party is a prisoner of war (P. I, Art. 4).
African States and the promotion of humanitarian principles
Authors: Mubiala Mutoy
Published: January 2010

It is well known that African societies are shaped by custom and tradition. African thought, deeply imbued with humanism, has given birth to concepts and practices that place these societies among the world's humanitarian civilizations. With the advent of the colonial era and the establishment of institutions based on foreign values, the manifestations of African ideas was put into abeyance. Subsequent independence, while giving African States the opportunity to participate alongside other nations in constructing a universal civilization, paradoxically brought the continent face to face with a dilemma in regard to economic, political, social and cultural matters: the choice between the wholesale adoption of foreign, particularly European, models, or a radical return to ancestral traditions. However, humanitarian concerns are among the few that can—and should—transcend such Manichean considerations.
Synopsis VIII — Conventions and Neutral Powers
Authors: de Preux Jean
Published: January 2010

A neutral Power may authorize the passage over its territory of the sick and wounded belonging to the belligerent armies, on condition that the trains bringing them shall carry neither personnel nor war material. In such a case, the neutral Power is bound to take whatever measures of safety and control are necessary for the purpose (Hague Conv. No. V, Art. 14). (Personnel and materials necessary to treat the sick and wounded are consequently authorized).
Humanitarian policy and operational activities: The ICRC's humanitarian mandate as reflected in its work in Greece and throughout the world
Authors: Sommaruga Cornelio
Published: January 2010

In May 1991, Mr. Cornelio Sommaruga, President of the ICRC, spent some time in Greece at the invitation of the Hellenic Red Cross (see IRRC, No. 283, July–August 1991). While there, he was asked by the Jean-Gabriel Eynard Greek-Swiss League to give a lecture in connection with the 700th anniversary of the founding of the Swiss Confederation. The subject of the lecture was “The ICRC's humanitarian mandate as reflected in the light of its activities in Greece and throughout the world”. The President's purpose was to remind his hearers of the work done in Greece by Swiss delegates of the ICRC. who might be regarded as “humanitarian Hellenists”, and. in his words, “to retrace some stages in the journey made by the International Committee of the Red Cross in company with the Hellenes, in order to throw light on certain aspects of the beautiful and difficult mission of the Red Cross”.
Anniversary message
Authors: Lossier Jean-Georges
Published: January 2010

Few journals have the opportunity, as the Review has today, of celebrating their 125th anniversaries. A more suitable occasion could hardly be found to highlight the publication's important contribution to the study of a broad range of subjects, including the Fundamental Principles of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, international humanitarian law, the activities of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, the history of humanitarian ideas and of those who have championed them, world peace and international ethical standards. In fact, an outstanding feature of the Review over the past fifty years has been the very scope and diversity of the subjects it addresses. Two of these, among others, have played a significant role in the development of the Movement.
The formation of international humanitarian law
Authors: Pictet Jean
Published: January 2010

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.
The International Committee of the Red Cross and the Indochina War — From the Japanese defeat to the Geneva Agreements (1945–1954)
Authors: Truninger Florianne , Bugnion François
Published: January 2010

Institutions — like individuals — have a memory. They are rooted in it and draw strength from it to weather the vagaries of vogue and sentiment. To a large extent the historical consciousness is the source of the standards set for the present and for the future.

Yet time does take its toll, first dimming the memory of past events, then shrouding them in the mists of oblivion.