War, more than peace, is likely to give rise to circumstances in which soldiers and civilians find themselves against their will in a setting where a foreign language is employed. In addition, they may be forced to have contact on their own territory with people using another tongue. Therefore in the context of war, the protection of basic language rights is perhaps even more crucial than in peacetime in easing the fate of those involved. One of the ways humanitarian law seeks to protect the victims of war is by guaranteeing their right to communicate in a language which they easily understand. The purpose of this study is to analyze linguistic rights in time of war.

The founders of the Red Cross did not seek to establish their work on the elements of a doctrine. They referred to a concept of the world which was common to them all and which did not appear to need any explanation. They were impelled by the emotions which Henry Dunant's revelations and proposals had raised in them. Their purpose was to “take into serious consideration the idea proposed in the conclusions of the book entitled “A Memory of Solférino”, namely the foundation of Societies for the Relief of Wounded Soldiers and the addition of a corps of medical volunteers to the belligerent armies”, and their concern was “how” to put that idea into practice rather than “why”. It is true that those conclusions contained in embryo a whole set of guiding principles which were not formally stated until much later; but they appeared then as a necessary condition for the application of the initial decisions rather than as their source.

While in Geneva, Crown Prince Harald and Princess Sonja of Norway visited the headquarters of the ICRC and the League of Red Cross Societies on 10 June 1981.

The President of the Republic of Venezuela, Mr. Luis Herrera Campins, came to the headquarters of the ICRC, on 12 June 1981, accompanied by Mrs. de Herrera Campins and their suite. They were welcomed by ICRC President Mr. Alexandre Hay. The members of the Committee, the directors of the ICRC and Mr. Henrik Beer, Secretary-General of the League of Red Cross Societies, were presented to the presidential couple.

On 6 July 1981 the Solomon Islands deposited with the Swiss Government instruments containing its declaration of succession to the Four Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 for the protection of war victims, pursuant to the previous ratification of those Conventions by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

On the African continent, the ICRC's most complex operation continued to be in Angola, where an ICRC office was opened in Bie at the start of May, supplementing the delegation already established in Luanda and the sub-delegation in Huambo. However, as previously mentioned, ICRC operations for the displaced population in the country's highlands had to be suspended on May 2 because of the high security risks involved.