Before the opening of the International Red Cross Conference, the League General Assembly and then the Council of Delegates held their statutory meetings, also in Manila, from 2 to 6 November.

Since the honour devolves upon me in my capacity as President of the International Committee of the Red Cross to take the floor at this point of the opening session of the Twenty-fourth International Red Cross Conference, I will make use of this opportunity to express all the gratitude of the ICRC to the Philippine Red Cross which, with the generous assistance of the government of this country, has prepared, organized and welcomed these sessions of the movement of the Red Cross in this marvellous setting. And I wish also to express my greetings to the people of the Philippines whose reputation for hospitality is so strikingly confirmed today.

An International Red Cross Conference is an ideal moment to review the present situation and look to the future. Meeting every four years and assembling as it does the governments and the entire Red Cross family (ICRC, National Societies and the League), this “supreme deliberative body of the International Red Cross” reflects the concerns of the entire movement at a certain point in time. Its resolutions are a gauge of progress achieved in the various fields of Red Cross activity and an indication of the direction that activity should take in future, or in any case until the next International Conference.

In the following pages we publish a number of documents relating to the Manila Conference. It appeared desirable to make them available to International Review readers without delay, in view of the importance of the subjects dealt with and of their lasting interest. Moreover, because of the very full agenda before the Council of Delegates and the International Conference itself, the time devoted to some items and to their preparatory projects was too short for examination with all the care they deserved. That is why the Review is publishing them now.

On 15 January 1982, the Republic of Korea deposited with the Swiss Government an instrument, dated 28 December 1981, signifying the ratification by the Republic of Korea of Protocols I and II additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 and relating to the Protection of Victims of International and Non-International Armed Conflicts, signed on 12 December 1977.

Switzerland deposited the instruments, dated 11 February 1982, signifying its ratification of the Protocols I and II Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of International and Non-International Armed Conflicts, signed on 12 December 1977.

In December 1981, Mr. Roger Santschy, in charge of the Southern Africa sector at ICRC headquarters, Geneva, visited the ICRC delegations in Mozambique, the Republic of South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe, with the purpose of taking stock of ICRC activities in those countries.