In 1976 the League adopted a new constitution. Four years of study, research and discussion were necessary until the special commission, set up by the Board of Governors in 1973, with the co-operation of National Societies, came up with what is to be the charter of the League for years to come.

The idea of making an overall revision of the Constitution and Bye-Laws of the League occurred in the context of a major evolution in the activities of the institution, corresponding to the changing needs of its members and of peoples, as a result of the rapid transformations of the modern world.

The concepts of assistance and protection are of fundamental significance for the Red Cross and it was therefore appropriate for the Tansley Report to devote nearly two-thirds of its pages to them.

It also seems proper that both questions should be discussed simultaneously, as they are linked in a number of ways, especially in armed conflicts and similar situations. In such situations, assistance activities often assume the character of protection operations and vice versa, to such an extent that they become inseparable. That is one reason why the International Red Cross, in article 6 of its Statutes, entrusted the ICRC with the final responsibility for carrying out the humanitarian work of the Red Cross in the event of armed conflict.

Originally, and up to 1949, the law of Geneva protected only victims of wars between States. Article 3, common to the four Conventions of 1949, is applicable to all non-international armed conflicts; the Protocol additional II to these Conventions covers non-international armed conflicts in which hostilities reach a certain degree of intensity; it does not apply to situations of internal disturbances and tensions, such as riots, isolated and sporadic acts of violence and other acts of a similar nature, as not being armed conflicts (Protocol II, art. 1, par. 2).

From 19 May to 10 June 1978, Mr. Jean-Pierre Hocké, Director of ICRC's Operations Department, visited several African countries, including Rhodesia/Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Ethiopia. The purpose of his mission was to study and define, with the ICRC delegations on the spot, the nature and scope of the forthcoming protection and assistance programmes to be carried out by the ICRC. In all the places he visited, Mr. Hocké also met the customary interlocutors, the authorities and National Societies, with whom the ICRC is in contact.