After two and a half months of work, the second session of the Diplomatic Conference on the Reaffirmation and Development of International Humanitarian Law Applicable in Armed Conflicts closed on 18 April 1975.

About 600 delegates from 121 countries took part. Nearly 500 meetings were held, including plenary sessions, meetings of committees, sub-committees, drafting committees, working parties, etc. Of the 140 articles constituting the two draft Protocols Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 1949, about half were adopted by the main Committees.

As announced in the last issue of the International Review, a Symposium on the Development of the Red Cross in Africa was recently held at Montreux (Switzerland). It was organized by the League of Red Cross Societies and attended by officers of thirty-five African Societies and representatives of eight of the main donor Societies which had contributed to the programme for the development of the Red Cross in Africa over the past ten years. Experts from African universities, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and other United Nations agencies also attended the Symposium, as did representatives of the League, the ICRC and the Joint Committee for the Reappraisal of the Role of the Red Cross.

In its Circular No. 495 of 23 August 1974, the International Committee of the Red Cross had the honour to invite the Central Committees of National Societies to send in the names of nurses and voluntary aids whom they judged qualified to receive the Florence Nightingale Medal. This invitation, which quoted Article 1 of the Regulations, was accompanied by application forms to be completed by National Societies.

ICRC activities. – In March 1975, the delegates of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) visited seven places of detention and two hospitals in Chile, where 778 detainees were held by order of the military authorities. From 1 to 17 April 1975, they visited thirteen places of detention holding 983 detainees. Medicaments were distributed on several occasions. During March 1975, medicaments, toilet articles, foodstuffs and clothing, to a value of 30,000 dollars were distributed to 2,700 families of detainees (800 of them in Santiago).

The International Committee learned with sorrow of the death of Mr. Samuel A. Gonard on 3 May 1975.

Appointed to membership of the ICRC in June 1961, Mr. Gonard shortly thereafter resigned from his high office in the Swiss Army and took an active part in the work of the institution. He was elected one year later to the Presidential Council and in that capacity carried out a number of major missions on behalf of the ICRC in several countries.

The ICRC has appointed Dr. Reinhold Käser to succeed Dr. Roland Marti as Chief Physician.

Dr. Käser, a specialist in otorhinolaryngology, has practised in Soleure and Bern for 20 years, during which time he also served as chief physician for the Swiss Red Cross, before being appointed as surgeongeneral of the army. He was a member of the Swiss delegation to the Diplomatic Conference on the Reaffirmation and Development of International Humanitarian Law.

With the aim of renewing and completing its travelling exhibition, the Division for Documentation and Dissemination has prepared a set of eighteen panels for displays to be presented first in Zurich and later in Montreal. In the former city, the Swiss National Museum is putting on an exhibition on the theme “The Good Offices of Switzerland,” relating to activities of various kinds designed to limit international conflicts, and in this connection asked the ICRC to provide material illustrating its activities for the Humanitarian Action section. The panels deal with the following: the history of the Red Cross; the role of the ICRC; the Geneva Conventions; and the Central Tracing Agency. In addition, two showcases display documents relating to the Conventions and the Agency.

The Soldier's Manual, for the use of the armed forces, presents in words and pictures the main provisions of the Geneva Conventions of 1949. The first edition of 10,000 copies which appeared in 1969 was sent to governments and National Societies. On the basis of their comments, the work was revised and republished in the form of a pocket manual. There were subsequent editions in various languages. Reports reaching us this year show that the diffusion of the Soldier's Manual continues,both in Africa and Latin America.