It is common knowledge that the ICRC, in order to make the humanitarian Red Cross principles known throughout the world, has produced a school textbook entitled The Red Cross and My Country, followed by a Teacher's Manual. It has already been issued in fifteen languages. More than a million copies have been printed and it has been distributed in schools in fifty-five countries.

Subsequently, it appeared necessary to publish also a handbook for officers and other ranks of the armed forces. It was entitled the Soldier's Manual. Its inspiration was the same as that underlying the school textbook. However, while the latter is designed to inculcate in schoolchildren, by means of short illustrated texts, the principles of the Red Cross and of humanitarian law, the Soldier's Manual summarizes the rules of the Geneva Conventions which should be applied in all circumstances when armed conflict breaks out.