The marking of ambulances and hospitals is a practice which goes back a long time, but until the middle of the nineteenth century different colours were used by different countries: Austria a white flag, France a red one, Spain and the United States yellow, to mention a few examples. The devices displayed were not generally well known, so that they were seldom respected: it frequently happened that artillery shelled ambulances, that grapeshot riddled the waggons bearing the wounded but displaying no outward sign that their mission was one of mercy.

Si l'on désire étudier ce que la Croix-Rouge peut accomplir en faveur de la paix, il faut tout d'abord écarter un reproche qu'on lui adresse périodiquement et qu'on a répété encore lorsque la Conférence diplomatique de 1949 a établi le texte aes nouvelles Conventions de Genève. Bien que ces critiques soient dépourvues de tout fondement, elles reviennent avec une telle persistance qu'il nous a paru utile de les réfuter. Sous des formes diverses, elles peuvent se ramener à la m^me idée: l'œuvre de la Croix-Rouge, sur le plan pratique comme sur le plan juridique, nuit aux efforts qui tendent à proscrire la guerre.

Ambitions to fulfil accountability demands in humanitarian action are high, including for protection activities in armed conflict settings. However, from a Dunantist position, meeting accountability demands is often not only unsatisfactory for practical reasons, but is also inappropriate in view of humanitarian principles and flawed from related ethical perspectives. Regarding accountability primarily as a technical exercise, rather than as being linked to ethical perspectives on humanitarianism and its principles, may thus inadvertently contribute to reduced acceptability of, and ultimately reduced access for, humanitarian actors. Dunantist actors wishing to stay true to their ethical approach need new ways of thinking about accountability, a reflection which can serve as an example for an ongoing need to consider differences between actors within the humanitarian–development nexus.

La notion de neutralité appartient avant tout au domaine du droit international public : le mot « neutralité » désigne la situation dans laquelle se trouve, vis-à-vis des Etats qui font la guerre, un Etat qui n'y prend pas part. Quoique la notion de neutralité ait évolué, elle comporte toujours l'idée que le neutre s'abstient d'actes de guerre proprement dits et reste à l'abri de ceux-ci. Dans le domaine moral, d'autre part, la neutralité signifie l'observation d'une attitude ª égale » à l'égard de situations ou de courants d'esprit différents ou opposés.

The International Committee of the Red Cross has first-hand experience of the real consequences of the many armed conflicts now taking place and of the actual use and effects of weapons. It therefore has a particular interest in ensuring that the law takes into account the realities of the use of weapons in order to effectively reduce the amount of suffering caused in armed conflicts.

In 1981, the Twenty-fourth International Red Cross Conference, in Resolution VI, deplored the fact that in several armed conflicts fundamental provisions of the Geneva Conventions were being violated and that those violations impeded the International Committee of the Red Cross in the discharge of its activities. In spite of the Conference's solemn appeal to remedy the situation, there are still signs of reluctance to fully respect those fundamental rules, and even of ill-will towards them. Under the pretext that it requires reciprocity, the application of Convention provisions is at times made conditional on the outcome of bargaining and the prisoners themselves are treated as hostages, even as instruments of blackmail. Such attitudes are inadmissible. The following text discusses the matter in detail. (Editor.)

In situations of national crisis, it is not uncommon to see community members join together to provide security services to their communities, gap-filling or supplementing the security services of the State. These “community defence groups” perform many roles, from operating checkpoints and conducting surveillance missions to patrolling roads and even participating in combined combat operations with the State. Unfortunately, while many community defence groups perform an important service for their community, some have been accused of serious human rights abuses or even war crimes. This article examines the circumstances in which a State might be responsible in relation to wrongful acts of community defence groups operating within their territory.

Each community defence group differs in its structure, its activities and its relationship with the State. As such, any assessment of the potential responsibility of the State will depend upon the particulars of each group and its operations. The contribution of this article is to provide a framework for assessing State responsibility in relation to community defence groups. It does so by examining the potential attribution of acts of the community defence group to the State, applying secondary rules of State responsibility. In addition, it also considers the potential responsibilities of the State under primary rules of international law, namely international humanitarian law and international human rights law, in circumstances where the primary wrongful act is not attributable to the State.

The definitive text of the draft Additional Protocols to the 1949 Geneva Conventions, drawn up by the ICRC as a sequel to the two sessions of the Conference of Government Experts on the Reaffirmation and Development of International Humanitarian Law Applicable in Armed Conflicts, in 1971 and 1972, have just come off the press. The text has been drafted in English, French and Spanish and may be obtained at 10 Swiss francs a copy from the ICRC Documents and Dissemination Division, 7, Avenue de la Paix, CH—1211 Geneva.

Neither the Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May be Deemed to be Excessively Injurious or to have Indiscriminate Effects, adopted in Geneva on 10 October 1980, nor the Protocols annexed to it specify in their operative parts the principles on which the prohibitions and restrictions rest. Such principles are, however, found in the preamble to the Convention.

Four of the twelve preambular paragraphs are relevant here. They list: the “general principle of the protection of the civilian population against the effects of hostilities”; the principle “that the right of the parties to an armed conflict to choose methods or means of warfare is not unlimited”; the ban on “the employment in armed conflicts of weapons, projectiles and material and methods of warfare of a nature to cause superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering”; and the fact that it is prohibited “to employ methods or means of warfare which are intended, or may be expected, to cause widespread, longterm and severe damage to the natural environment.” The fifth paragraph reiterates the well-known Martens clause, in the formulation accepted for Article 1, paragraph 2, of Additional Protocol I of 1977.

En el presente artículo se examina el cometido de protección y de asistencia en favor de los refugiados en caso de conflicto armado y de disturbios interiores. Es un modesto intento de elucidar el enmarañado conjunto de cometidos y mandatos de las instituciones humanitarias, en particular del Movimiento Internacional de la Cruz Roja y de la Media Luna Roja (en adelante el Movimiento) y de la Oficina del Alto Comisionado de las Naciones Unidas para los Refugiados (ACNUR). La finalidad es reevaluar la evolución del cometido respectivo y su extensión. Por un lado, es necesario definir principios concretos, basados en las prácticas pasadas y presentes, por lo que atañe a la acción humanitaria y, por el otro, se debe dejar un suficiente margen de flexibilidad y de pragmatismo con respecto a las situaciones que no pueden preverse de manera completa.

Al final del artículo se demuestra la interdependencia y la complementariedad de las organizaciones humanitarias que han de prestar protección y asistencia donde ningún organismo pueda actuar.

It is easy to heap scorn on the Advisory Opinion handed down by the International Court of Justice on 8 July 1996 on the legality of the threat or use of nuclear weapons. No great cerebral effort is required; one need only choose any of the numerous and often harsh criticisms to be found in the declarations and the separate or dissenting opinions that all fourteen judges present took care to formulate, whether they agreed with the whole of the decision or voted against any of its paragraphs.

The traditional annual press conference given by the President of the ICRC took place on 10 January 1985 at the headquarters of the Committee. It provided not only an opportunity to make the usual assessment of events in the year which had just gone by but, in particular, was the moment chosen by the ICRC to launch an “Appeal for a Humanitarian Mobilization”.

La confrontation des deux attitudes différentes de la conscience humaine, en temps de paix et en temps de guerre — il faut bien l'avouer — est singulièrement troublante. Si, en temps de paix, la solidarité universelle est devenue, non seulement quant aux considérations économiques, mais spécialement au point de vue de la charité, une des grandes préoccupations de la politique mondiale, la barbarie des hommes, en temps de guerre, connaît de jour en jour des cruautés inattendues qui se traduisent dans les formes de la tactique et de la stratégie militaires, avec une évidence déconcertante.

Both the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) and the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) – the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's security assistance mission to Afghanistan – have recognized the importance of reducing civilian harm, and adopted policies and practices that restrict the use of certain weapons in populated areas. ISAF commanders issued a number of tactical directives that restricted the use of certain air-delivered weapons, and AMISOM developed an indirect fire policy limiting the use of artillery and other indirect fire munitions in populated areas. This article examines both ISAF and AMISOM policies and practices to reduce civilian harm in populated areas and explores how these policies strengthened adherence to international humanitarian law and illustrated new ways in which armed actors can take feasible precautions and prioritize civilian protection.

Human rights, particularly civil and political, have influenced the latest developments in international humanitarian law, especially 1977 Protocol II relating to non-international armed conflicts. At the Teheran Conference in 1968 the United Nations began to reconcile these two branches of international law; it was at this Conference that international humanitarian law was first called “human rights in periods of armed conflict”. This rapprochement was helped further by the adoption in the 1977 Protocols of some basic rules identical to those in the Human Rights Conventions; it helps strengthen the protection of human beings in situations of armed conflict.

Rarement les débats provoqués par ce que certains ont qualifié de droit ou de devoir d'ingérence, en liaison ensuite avec le concept de droit à l'assistance, n'ont donné aux questions humanitaires une telle publicité. A différents niveaux d'appréhension du problème, le gran public, les médias et les juristes spécialisés se sont passionnés, voire querellés.

The International Committee of the Red Cross is aware that international law gives inadequate protection to aircraft used for medical evacuation. It considers that the subject is one which calls for further study and therefore takes pleasure in reproducing in the following pages a translation of important extracts of a recent article on legal protection for aircraft used as air-ambulances in time of war. This article is of particular interest, coming from Dr. Evrard who, being a flyer, can look at the problem from a practical as well as a legal point of view.

Since some years, concern has been expressed on the part of various press associations on the dangers attending reporters who, in order to collect news material in the exercice of their profession, move into territories where hostilities are in progress.