As announced in our February issue, the second session of the Diplomatic Conference on the Reaffirmation and Development of International Humanitarian Law Applicable in Armed Conflicts opened at the International Conference Centre, Geneva, on 3 February 1975. The Conference, which is chaired by Mr. Pierre Graber, President of the Swiss Confederation, is merely the continuance of the first session, held in Geneva from 20 February to 29 March 1974, which was also chaired by Mr. Graber. At the opening of the twenty-third plenary meeting, after greeting the delegates, the Chairman said that the task awaiting the Conference was arduous indeed. The hopes which the international community had placed in the Conference's work must not be disappointed, he said, and he emphasized the unanimous desire of the Conference Bureau for decisive progress.