For some years it has been customary to call “humanitarian law” that considerable portion of international law which owes its inspiration to a feeling for humanity and which is centred on the protection of the individual. This expression of humanitarian law appears to combine two ideas of a different character, the one legal and the other moral. Now, the provisions which are the subject under study are, as will be seen later, precisely a transposition in international law of considerations of a moral order, and more especially humanitarian. This then would seem to be a satisfactory designation.

Just as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaims the fundamental importance of the rights of all men, so the European Convention on Human Rights seeks to secure to everyone within the jurisdiction of the High Contracting Parties the rights and freedoms it contains. This objective of securing the general application of the protection of the Convention is followed in the Protocols to the Convention which add further rights to those already incorporated in it.

On several occasions the International Review has published information about the work initiated by the ICRC for civilian disabled in Vietnam. Since then this assistance programme has developed in co-operation with the Red Cross and authorities of the Republic of Vietnam, as well as with other organizations interested in this activity.

In its June number, the International Review mentioned that the International Committee of the Red Cross had been informed by the Swiss Federal Political Department of the accession of the Republic of Honduras to the four Geneva Conventions of August 12, 1949. It pointed out that by this accession there were now 109 States parties to these Conventions, the 108th State, Iceland, having acceded thereto on January 10, 1966.

The ICRC has just issued a new edition of the essential provisions of the Geneva Conventions. This publication, on strong paper, in pocket size, is available in French, English and German.