La multiplication des crises a entraîné un accroissement important de l'aide humanitaire pour répondre aux besoins physiologiques essentiels des victimes: alimentation, eau, soins médicaux, abris. Les institutions humanitaires peuvent couvrir directement ces besoins, ou soutenir les services locaux pour leur permettre d'assumer cette tâche qui est normalement la leur. Le plus souvent, ces deux approches sont intriquées.

II serait injuste de juger l'impact de l'assistance humanitaire sur l'évolution des conflits en se basant sur des idées toutes faites, par exemple celle selon laquelle l'assistance humanitaire prolonge les conflits. Pour prendre la mesure exacte de l'assistance humanitaire, il faut analyser a la fois son impact sur les victimes — ce qui correspond a son role premier — et son impact sur le conflit lui-même. La synthèse de ces deux éléments permet de faire un bilan objectif de l'assistance humanitaire et de tirer des conclusions pour les actions futures.

Entre los Principios Fundamentales de la Cruz Roja y de la Media Luna Roja son, quizás, los de neutralidad e imparcialidad los que menos se comprenden. Frecuentemente confundidos, son objeto de controversia. ¿Cómo puede calificarse de neutral una Sociedad Nacional que actúa como auxiliar de los poderes públicos? ¿No es a veces la neutralidad sinónimo de pasividad o, incluso, de indiferencia? ¿Puede considerarse neutral al CICR cuando señala públicamente violaciones del derecho intemacional humanitario? ¿Implica la imparcialidad un reparto igual de socorros a las víctimas de las dos partes en conflicto? ¿Es posible prestar asistencia humanitaria a una sola de las partes sin violar los principios de neutralidad y de imparcialidad? Todos los hombres y mujeres que trabajan en el Movimiento Intemacional de la Cruz Roja y de la Media Luna Roja se nan planteado estas preguntas.

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.

In the Declaration of St. Petersburg of 1868 the signatory States recognized that the object of war is to weaken the enemy's military forces, for which it is sufficient to disable the greatest possible number of men, and that this object would be exceeded by the employment of arms which uselessly aggravate the sufferings of disabled men or render their death inevitable.

This principle was repeated in Article 23(e) of the Regulations annexed to The Hague Convention No. IV of 1907 concerning the laws and customs of war on land. That article forbids the employment of arms, projectiles or material calculated to cause unnecessary suffering. The authentic French text of the article referred to “des armes, des projectiles ou des matières propres à causer des maux superflus” whereas the English text of the same article referred to “arms, projectiles or material calculated to cause superfluous injury”.

Traditionally, international humanitarian law (IHL) is conceptualized as a body of mutually binding, horizontal international legal rules that are agreed upon by States and that govern the relationships between parties to armed conflicts. Yet, there is discernible evidence that contemporary IHL – and the broader normative environment that pertains to the regulation of armed conflicts in which it is situated – is incorporating elements of unilateralization, manifested in legal and non-legal norms that regulate armed conflicts taking the form of commitments whose validity is not dependent on being reciprocated. This article examines some of the systemic implications of unilateralization of IHL and considers its pitfalls and potential.

Since 20 November 1986 Belgium has been committed to comply not only with the obligations contained in the 1949 Geneva Conventions, but also with those included in the two Additional Protocols of 1977. Everybody in our country must therefore make necessary preparations for pautting into effect the obligations falling within their responsabilities.

Mr. Waldemar Jucker, member of the International Committee of the Red Cross, has resigned from the Committee following his appointment by the Swiss Government as of 1 April 1977 as delegate of the Federal Council for questions of economic development.

En el número de agosto de 1957 de la Revista International de la Cruz Roja apareció un estudio dedicado a las reservas relativas a los Convenios de Ginebra de 1949 para la protección de las víctimas de la guerra. En aquella época, el número de Estados obligados por los Convenios de Ginebra ascendía a 66, y 18 de ellos habían acompañado de reservas su participación. En 1965, apareció un estudio suplementario sobre la misma materia en el número del mes de julio de la misma Revista. En dicha fecha, el número de Estados obligados por los Convenios de Ginebra de 1949 había aumentado a 106, y 20 de ellos habían formulado reservas.

In his book A Memory of Solferino, Henry Dunant vividly communicates his emotion to the reader when he describes the relentless development of the battle between the French and Sardinian armies and the Austrian forces. But he shows in the second part of the book the wide-spread feeling, in the face of so much misery, which stirred the people from Mantua to Milan and Turin during those June and July days of 1859.

Dr Ahmad Ali Noorbala is President of the National Red Crescent Society of the Islamic Republic of Iran and Professor of Psychiatry at the Medical Faculty of Tehran University. The Iranian Red Crescent was established in 1922 and changed its former name, the Persian Red Lion and Sun Society, to the present one in 1980. It has 30 governorate headquarters, and 330 branches throughout the country. With about 7,000 paid staff members and more than two million volunteers, as well as the mainly high school and university student members of its youth organization, it is one of the worlds largest National Red Cross/Red Crescent Societies. Beside its core activity of relief and disaster preparedness, the Iranian Red Crescent engages in wide-ranging humanitarian services in health and rehabilitation, training and research. The Society is held in high esteem by the Iranian general public.

Après « L'Inde: humaine ou surhumaine? » de Paul Masson-Oursel, « Le droit international public et l'Islam » du professeur Mohamed A bdallah Draz et « Le respect de la personne humaine en Islam » de Louis Massignon, voici une nouvelle étude fort remarquables, d'intention analogue, de Paul Demiéville, qui nous apporte quelques pages d'une lecture particuliérement attachante sur « L'esprit de bienfaisance impartiale dans les civilisations anciennes de l'Extrême-Orient ».