Suchergebnisse

A report, which was originally published in French soon after the Second World War, has just been issued by the ICRC in its English version under the title The work of the ICRC for civilian detainees in German concentration camps from 1939 to 1945. It gives details of ICRC action on behalf of the detainees in German concentration camps and contains extracts of various documents and reports drafted by ICRC delegates. This 125-page volume may be obtained from the ICRC Documentation Service, Geneva, price 10 Swiss francs.

The ICRC has just published, in a sixty page volume entitled The Principles of International Humanitarian Law, the articles written by Mr. Jean Pictet, Director-General of the ICRC. These articles featured recently in consecutive issues of the International Review.

A Catalogue of Publications (1864–1975) has just been issued by the ICRC. This is a 40-page booklet listing titles of publications issued by the ICRC in the course of over a hundred years and which are not out of print; a number of works printed by other publishers have also been included. Titles are classified under the following headings: History of the Red Cross—Principles—Organization—Development of Humanitarian Law—Dissemination of the Conventions—General Information—ICRC Activities. Most of the titles listed have been issued in English, French and Spanish and some of them in other languages, mainly Arabic and German.

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.

On 27 September 1973, the "Vietnam Presse" agency published an article entitled "The International Red Cross approves the treatment of communist prisoners in South Vietnam", mentioning a visit by the ICRC delegation in the Republic of Vietnam to the Chi-Hoa "correction centre" in Saigon. The ICRC delegation did indeed, on 14 June 1973, go to that institution built for the detention of several thousand detainees but, as "Vietnam Presse" admits, the delegation had access to only 83 prisoners of war (officially described as Vietnamese communist prisoners) who had been sentenced to imprisonment for penal law offences during their captivity in a prisoner-of-war camp. The delegation did not see any other detainees and was therefore unable to make any statement concerning their number or conditions of detention.

A plenary meeting of the International Committee of the Red Cross has elected its future President. Its choice was Mr. Alexandre Hay of Geneva, Vice-Chairman of the Board of the Swiss National Bank, and member of the ICRC.

Under the title "ICRC Action in Angola", the Press and Information Division has published — in French, English and Portuguese — a well illustrated booklet on the humanitarian work that has been carried on by the International Committee for some years in Angola. In fact, though the delegation was opened in that country only in 1975, relations with the Angola authorities go back much further.

In response to an invitation, the President of the Red Cross of the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam paid a visit to the ICRC on 19 March. He was received by Mr. Roger Gallopin, President of the Executive Board, and Mr. Jean-Pierre Hocké, Director of the Department of Operations. Afterwards, he visited the League of Red Cross Societies where he was welcomed by Mr. Henrik Beer, Secretary General.

The ICRC Visitors Service is always quite busy and the following figures give some idea of the volume of its activities. During the first six months of 1976, the Service received nearly 2,100 persons, some singly and some in groups. The visitors included more than 500 members of National Societies from 37 countries: Algeria, Australia, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Denmark, Ecuador, El Salvador, Finland, France, Federal Republic of Germany, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Israel, Japan, Mauritania, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Somalia, Spain, Surinam, Sweden, Switzerland, USSR, United Kingdom, United States and Uruguay.

The International Committee of the Red Cross on 16 July 1973 made an urgent appeal to twenty governments and twenty-five National Red Cross Societies for funds to enable it to continue its work in the Asian Sub-Continent.

Two Directors-General have so far assumed responsibility, one for the executive and the other for general affairs. As announced on the preceding page, Mr. Gallopin was relieved of his office at the end of 1969. Moreover, Mr. Jean Pictet, for his part, also desired to be relieved of his administrative functions.

In November the International Committee had the pleasure of welcoming to its headquarters the Presidents of two National Societies of Central America.