The Florence Nightingale Medal is awarded every two years by the ICRC, after being proposed by the National Societies, in order to honour nurses who, by their example, their attachment to Red Cross principles, continue to work in the defence of humanity throughout the world. They appear to be animated not only by a sense of duty towards others, but also by the desire to help, without exception, all those they encounter, both physically and morally. We therefore have pleasure in presenting to our readers the thirty-four recipients who, through their self-sacrifice, obtained the award in 1961.

The provisional Government of the Algerian Republic after having informed the International Committee of the Red Cross, has released three members of the French armed forces. These three men had been captured during the course of operations along the fortified protective zone adjoining the Algero-Tunisian frontier in the spring of 1961. They were part of a group of five prisoners of whom two had been released at the end of December 1961 in Tunis, and handed over to an ICRC representative.

The Geneva Conventions having been invoked in numerous requests for intervention received by the International Committee of the Red Cross concerning the recent trial of Cuban prisoners captured during the invasion attempt in April 1961, it is appropriate to make the following statement: