On February 17, 1863, the Committee of five members appointed some days previously by the Public Welfare Society of Geneva to study the conclusions of a recently published work, A Memory of Solferino, met in Geneva. The International Committee of the Red Cross, because the Committee was soon to take this name, was born.

You have come here from all corners of the globe, united in the Red Cross spirit.

This spirit goes back a long way in history. It does not belong to any particular place, period, established faith or philosophy. It operates at all great moments of thought and everywhere. Then, one day a man was to give it its universal quality and effectiveness. Substance was to be given to this aspiration by exalting and binding humanity's still latent forces. That man was Henry Dunant, whose book A memory of Solferino will always remain as a monument of human grandeur.

We have the honour to inform you of the official recognition on August 8, 1963, of the Ivory Coast Red Cross Society by the International Committee of the Red Cross.

This Society applied for recognition in a letter dated April 18, 1963. The application was accompanied by the Decree of the Republic of the Ivory Coast of April 18, 1963, recognizing the Society, the Decree having been commented upon and defined in a letter from the Minister of the Interior on July 16, 1963, together with the text of the Society's Statutes and a report of its activities.

Mr. Henri Coursier, of the Legal Department of the ICRC, published some time ago a study on “Francis Lieber and the Laws of War” in the International Review, together with a French translation of Orders No. 100 relative to the behaviour of the United States Armies in the field (the famous “Lieber Laws”), the object of which was to have the principles of international law applied during the American civil war (1861–1865). These orders which were immediately recognized and appreciated by the principal lawyers of the time, had a great influence on the future of the law of nations, since it can be said that the Hague Regulations, which sprang from the 1899 and 1907 Peace Conferences, were very largely inspired by them, and several provisions of the Geneva Conventions of August 12, 1949, stem from the same source. It was to Lieber that the President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, appealed to establish this Code which was promulgated in 1863, thus preceding by one year the First Geneva Convention.

Some months after the heart-rending appeal of A Memory of Solferino, five Genevese citizens met to put into practice the proposals which Henry Dunant had made at the end of his book. With the exception of General Dufour, these were men of the middle class, without particular authority in their country and without contacts abroad. Nevertheless, they had faith in themselves and in the immense task which they were to undertake. Their discussions revealed uncommon good sense and a very clear perception of their action's possibilities. They were aware of what they could do in 1863, and they left it to future generations to achieve what would have been Utopian in their day. It was therefore with calm assurance that they addressed themselves to Heads of State and to public opinion.

On July 9, 1859, readers of the Journal de Genève could read a heart-rending appeal, coming from Solferino, of which we quote the following passages:

For 3 days I have been treating the wounded from Solferino at Castiglione and have cared for more than one thousand men in misery. We have had 40,000 wounded, of which as many Allies as Austrians, involved in this terrible affair. There are not sufficient doctors, and I had to replace them as well as I could with the help of some local women and some prisoners who were in a fit condition.

The first, and still the chief, object of the Red Cross is to mitigate the suffering caused by war.

Man, from earliest time, has sought to prevent war if possible, and to mitigate its consequences when it does occur. By the “Truce of God” first recorded in 1027, fighting, then recognised as the occupation of a gentleman, was forbidden under ecclesiastical sanctions, from Thursday morning to Sunday night. This is an approach to the outlawing of war. Still older, dating from the Council of Charroux in 980, was the “Peace of God” which declared inviolable during war, the persons of peasants, merchants, and pilgrims and especially of priests, monks and nuns—on whose care the wounded and sick depended at that time.

In place of the International Red Cross Conference, which has been postponed for two years, the Council of Delegates met in Geneva from September 2 to 9, 1963, in the spacious premises of the Palais des Nations. The Council and the Board of Governors of the League together constituted the Centenary Congress. As is known, the Council of Delegates includes the International Committee, the League and the National Societies, that is to say, the constituent bodies of the International Red Cross other than government representatives. Usually it meets just before the International Conference for the purpose of settling questions of procedure. This was only the second occasion upon which it met between Conferences and discussed basic questions. The first time this occurred was the 1961 assembly in Prague.

In 1863, from October 26 to 29, an International Conference was held in Geneva, convened by the International Committee for Relief to Wounded Soldiers, that group of five men — the offspring of the Geneva Public Welfare Society — which later assumed the title of International Committee of the Red Cross. An invitation had been sent out on September 1, followed a fortnight later by a “Supplement to the Convocation to an International Conference in Geneva”, the initiative for which had been taken by Dunant and Basting in Berlin.

The 31 people who responded and who attended the meeting at the Palais de l'Athénée were met by Dufour, Dunant, Moynier, Appia and Maunoir. Sixteen States and four philanthropic societies were represented. Justice demands that tribute be paid to the participants for it was they who, fired by the enthusiasm of the five Genevese, implanted the Red Cross in their countries. They were:

The Centenary Congress of the International Red Cross will testify to the extent and universality of our movement as well as to its immense latent possibilities. And from the exposition of so many varied actions in so many countries there cannot but spring hope and encouragement for all who co-operate with the national and international institutions, for all who work under the emblem of the Red Cross, Red Crescent or Red Lion and Sun.

At the time when the Centenary of the Red Cross is about to be celebrated, it would be fitting to remember the rôle so many members and officers of the International Committee of the Red Cross have played in the drafting and the proclamation of the Rights of the Child. This declaration called the Declaration of Geneva was proclaimed forty years ago by the Council of the “Save the Children International Union” (SCIU). It was on May 17, 1923, that the final draft in five brief clauses was adopted. It is to be recalled that at that time the ICRC and the SCIU worked in close co-operation. Indeed, it was Dr. Frédéric Ferrière's report (then Vice-President of the ICRC) on the disastrous situation in which children lived in Vienna which incited Eglantyne Jebb to come to Geneva for the first time.

On June 24, 1859, 30 to 40,000 wounded lay uncared for on the battle-field of Solferino at the mercy of the heat, looters and birds of prey. Henry Dunant was an accidental witness of this disaster and he was so shocked by the suffering and so scandalized by the inadequacy of the medical services that he improvised a relief action with the help of some local country women.

The International Committee has received from the Saudi Arabian authorities a further list of prisoners captured by the Royalist Yemeni forces fighting to re-establish the Imam El Badr on the throne of Sanaa. This list comprises the names of 24 Egyptian military personnel. These, after having been captured on Yemen territory, were handed over to the Saudi Arabian authorities who interned them in conformity with international practice. Dr. Beretta, delegate of the ICRC, to whom the list was handed, took steps to enable him to visit these prisoners.

The International Committee of the Red Cross wishes to thank the large number of persons who have responded to its appeal and have come here to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of its foundation.

Mr. Pierre Boissier will shortly be describing to you how this work began, reminding you how much the whole world owes to the five men of Geneva who created the Red Cross. Did they not accomplish, with astonishing courage and tenacity, the two great ideas of their colleague Henry Dunant: the declaration of legal principles leading, on the one hand, to the protection of the victims of war and, on the other hand, to the forming of National Societies whose task it was to assist the Army Medical Services in the theatre of hostilities ? Furthermore, by constituting themselves as an International Committee, they foresaw that it could carry out the dual role of a neutral and impartial body which would propagate and develop humanitarian law and also send delegates to places in which fighting was taking place who would see to the application of this law. The principles and the action would thus be complementary.

On several occasions the International Review has published articles and information on a problem which at the moment is holding the attention of people and institutions concerned in every country, that of the humanization of the hospital.

A considerable development is to be noted in this field and pilot-hospitals are showing the way forward with numerous innovations. These problems correspond to those of many National Red Cross, Red Crescent and Red Lion and Sun Societies, which possess their own hospitals and train nurses in their own schools.

It is unprofitable to indulge in much speculation concerning Lieber's sources for the Code. Since he had been a student of the law of war for at least a quarter of a century before the Instructions were promulgated, his primary source was Lieber reinforced with the notes and files that he had painstakingly built up during his teaching career. Under such circumstances, one can only mention his likes and dislikes. Chief among the latter were both Lawrence's Wheaton and “old” Vattel, whom he characterized as “Father Namby-Pamby”. Halleck's International Law was naturally looked upon with great favor, the more so because Halleck had drawn on Lieber's Political Ethics. Lieber probably relied heavily on Heffter's Das Europäische Völkerrecht der Gegenwart. He also consulted Grotius, Bynkershoek, and Pufendorff among the classical writers. In his library or mentioned in his works are books by a host of names, many of them long since forgotten : Zachariae, Trendlenburg, von Martens, Phillimore, Mackintosh, Whewell, Foelix, von Mohl, Bluntschli (a close friend of Lieber), Bernard, Kennedy, Klüber, Pinheiro-Ferreira, Kent, and Theodore Dwight Woolsey.

Dr. Bruno Beretta, Delegate of the ICRC at the headquarters of the Royalist Forces pointed out that prisoners owe their lives to the precepts of the Geneva Conventions which the combatants are beginning to recognize. Groups of prisoners are held in areas which are often very difficult to reach and the delegate has made various representations to the Royalist authorities to have them evacuated and even in some cases for their release. He personally visited a further group of three. It can also be pointed out that twenty-four nationals of the UAR interned in Saudi Arabia, after having been taken prisoner in the Yemen, have been repatriated, the delegate of the ICRC himself escorting them as far as Cairo. Some time ago during his stay in the capital of the UAR, Dr. Beretta was authorized to visit twenty-four members of the Imam's family placed under assigned residence in a villa.

The programme of the Centenary Celebrations in Switzerland will extend over a period from August 15 to September 15, 1963. It will not only enable the finishing touches to be put to a century's existence of an idea which has spread throughout the world, but also to lay the foundations for fruitful work in the future, on the threshold of the second century. It will be an opportunity for the specialists to compare experiences and for the general public to learn about the Red Cross and its activities.

We have the honour to inform you of the official recognition on August 8, 1963, of the Senegalese Red Cross Society by the International Committee of the Red Cross.

This Society applied for recognition by letter dated May 9, 1963. The application was accompanied by the Decree of January 29,1963, of the Government of the Republic of Senegal, recognizing the Society, the Decree having been commented upon and defined in a letter of July 18, 1963, from the President of the Republic, together with the text of the Society's Statutes and a report of its activities.

This would seem to be a good moment, in this month of February 1963 when the International Committee is celebrating the hundredth anniversary of its foundation, to publish once more documents of the greatest interest, since they throw light of considerable historic importance on the birth of the Red Cross. The material consists of the first minutes of what was known as the “Comité des Cinq” (Committee of Five), the Committee which was in fact the founder body of the Red Cross. Originally written in French, these were rendered into English by the Translation Section of the ICRC.