The Twenty-fourth International Red Cross Conference, held in Manila, from 7 to 14 November 1981, was attended by a large number of delegations representing 121 National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the ICRC, the League of Red Cross Societies and more than 80 States parties to the Geneva Conventions. The Conference was also attended by numerous observers from as yet unrecognized Red Cross Societies and from governmental and non-governmental organizations, which had been invited to follow the proceedings.

The XXIVth International Conference of the Red Cross,

considering that, in several situations of armed conflict, the identification of members of the armed forces killed on the battle-field is made extremely difficult for lack of identification documents,

recalling that Articles 16 and 17 of the First Geneva Convention of 12 August 1949 provide for identity discs to be worn by members of the armed forces to facilitate their identification in case they are killed and the communication of their deaths to the Power on which they depend,

1. urges the Parties to an armed conflict to take all necessary steps to provide the members of their armed forces with identity discs and to ensure that the discs are worn during service,

2. recommends that the Parties to an armed conflict should see that these discs give all the indications required for a precise identification of members of the armed forces such as full name, date and place of birth, religion, serial number and blood group; that every disc be double and composed of two separable parts, each bearing the same indications; and that the inscriptions be engraved on a substance as resistant as possible to the destructive action of chemical and physical agents, especially to fire and heat,

3. reminds the Parties to an armed conflict that one half of each disc must, in case of death, be detached and sent back to the Power on which the member of the armed forces depended, the other half remaining on the body,

4. notes that the International Committee of the Red Cross is prepared to provide models to States asking for them.

1. to amend Article 14 as follows:

Article 14 — Role of the League

The League acts as the information centre for the Red Cross regarding situations caused by disaster and co-ordinates at the international level the assistance provided by National Societies and the League or channelled through them.

The Council of Delegates,

having considered the report of the Henry Dunant Institute on its activities since the XXIIIrd International Conference of the Red Cross (Bucharest, October 1977),

1. expresses its appreciation of the positive results which it achieved and encourages it:

— to continue its action in the service of the Red Cross movement in the fields of research, training and publications,

— to reinforce its contribution to the efforts of the ICRC in disseminating international humanitarian law,

— to continue to support the action of the ICRC and of the League in the dissemination of the principles and ideals of the Red Cross;

The Council of Delegates,

having adopted the Report of the Commission on the Red Cross and Peace,

bearing in mind that the Commission's terms of reference, assigned to it by the Council of Delegates in 1977 and confirmed by the Council of Delegates in 1979, was to “follow the implementation of the Programme of Action of the Red Cross as a factor of Peace, by studying the activities of the Red Cross in terms of their contribution to Peace and by proposing to the appropriate bodies of the League, of the National Societies and to the ICRC measures for the realisation of the objectives and tasks deriving from that Programme”,

The Government of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam deposited with the Swiss Government, on 19 October 1981, an instrument signifying the ratification by Viet Nam of the Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and Relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I), signed on 12 December 1977.

On 14 December 1981, the Swiss Government received an instrument dated 27 November 1981 signifying the ratification by the Kingdom of Norway 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 October 1981 the International Committee of the Red Cross officially recognized the Tonga Red Cross Society and the Qatar Red Crescent Society. The National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies were informed of this decision in two circulars, dated 20 and 30 October 1981 respectively.

The ICRC delegation in the Republic of South Africa carried out between 31 August and 18 September a series of visits to security detainees. A team of delegates, accompanied by the ICRC delegate-general for Africa, Mr. Jean-Marc Bornet, visited six places of detention holding 505 sentenced security detainees, including 473 in Robben Island and six women detained in Pretoria.