Representing the International Committee of the Red Cross on this occasion gives me a welcome opportunity to thank the International Committee of Military Medicine and Pharmacy (ICMMP) for its constant help and support and at the same time to thank the many medical officers who offered their services to us for various medical missions in so many countries. The ICRC has always need of doctors and qualified medical personnel and we hope that these invaluable and essential volunteers will continue to come forward in sufficient numbers for the accomplishment of manifold, interesting, and satisfying humanitarian assignments.

The report on the re-appraisal of the role of the Red Cross has brought to light a fact which hitherto had been given no attention, namely that the objectives of the Red Cross movement as a whole have never been denned in writing. This omission is easily explained.

The International Committee of the Red Cross has received from the Federal Political Department in Berne a communication informing it that the Canadian Government notified the Swiss Federal Council on May 14, 1965 of the ratification by that State of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, such ratification taking effect on November 14, 1965.

If we look back to the diverse origins of the laws of warfare, one basic question which seems to have occupied the early lawmakers was: why, in fact, should there be legal limitations to belligerent actions aimed at destroying a foreign foe? At first glance, any such constraints would appear to be contrary to the very purpose of warfare and thus of no value to those who were either forced to resist an armed attack or who themselves wished to wage war against an enemy.

Ma première étude publiée par la Revue internationale de la Croix-Rouge dans son numéro 194 de février 1935 (p. 79 et suiv.) m'a valu un certain nombre de demandes d'explications qui m'obligent à quelques précisions. C'est surtout à M. Paul Des Gouttes, à qui m'unissent près de douze années d'une intime collaboration dans ce domaine de l'aviation sanitaire, que je désire fournir ces explications.

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.

Voici plusieurs dizaines d'années que le CICR s'attelle périodiquement à la difficile tâche de réeévaluer sa ligne de conduite dans des situations de violence interne. Entre 1872, date de sa première offre de services aux parties à un conflit armé non international, 1918, date de sa première visite à des dàtenus de sàcurità, et ce jour le CICR a accumulé une riche expérience. II a étendu progressivement son mandat à des situations où la souffrance humaine requérait de sa part une intervention qu'il n'aurait pas envisagee quelques annees auparavant.

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.

En su reunión del 26 de octubre, el Consejo de Delegados del Movimiento International de la Cruz Roja y de la Media Luna Roja, de conformidad con las decisiones de la Comisión Permanente de la Cruz Roja y de la Media Luna Roja, distinguió con la medalla Henry Dunant y con el Premio de la Cruz Roja y de la Media Luna Roja por la Paz y la Humanidad a:

Michael Egabu, Cruz Roja de Uganda, asesinado el 9 de enero de 1989, en una emboscada, cuando viajaba en un vehículo de la Cruz Roja.

George M. Elsey, ex presidente y presidente honorario de la Cruz Roja Norteamericana.

Doctor Ali Furati, presidente honorario de la Media Luna Roja Tunecina.

Profesor L. Kashetra Snidvongs, ex vicepresidente ejecutivo de la Cruz Roja Tailandesa.

Gejza Mencer, miembro del Comité Federal de la Cruz Roja Checoslovaca.

Leon Stubbings, ex secretario general de la Cruz Roja Australiana.

Con la primera atribución de este premio, instituido en 1987 para compensar a una Sociedad National o a una persona que haya contribuido de manera significativa a la solidaridad international, se galardonó a la Cruz Roja Libanesa.

Dans plusieurs des traités conclus après la guerre mondiale figurent des clauses relatives à la protection des minorités. Cette protection est confiée à la Société des Nations.

On entend par .minorités, les groupements de personnes appartenant à une race, à une religion ou parlant une langue qui diffèrent de celles de la majorité du pays. Mais ces personnes peuvent encore se ranger en deux catégories bien distinctes. Elles peuvent être:

a) ressortissants d'une puissance étrangère;

b) ressortissants du pays.

Le Président de la Croix-Rouge allemande dans la République fédérate d'AUemagne a présenté lors d'une manifestation publique de la Section de la Basse-Saxe de cette Société nationale, à Goslar, le 22 juin 1974, une conférence dont il a bien voulu nous communiquer la teneur. C'est à titre d'information que nous publions de larges extraits de ce texte qui, bien entendu, n'engage que son auteur (Réd.).

The growing and intensified manifestations of religion in politics and vice versa are part of the environment of ICRC operations in Muslim countries and mark especially the interaction with Islamists. Different perceptions held by Muslims are examined, problem areas regarding interaction with the ICRC are analysed and aspects are mentioned which, in the opinion of the author, can help the ICRC improve its activities in Muslim countries. The conclusions of the examination could be relevant in any relationship with conservative movements within other religions.

Although mention of blood transfusion dates back to the origin of medicine, it may be said that the genuine history of transfusion starts at the beginning of our century.

Since then transfusion has passed through several decisive phases, but it is only in the past twenty years that it has made spectacular progress and has become one of the essential components of modern medicine.

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 ».