Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-hfldf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-22T02:50:17.017Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The International Committee of the Red Cross within the International System

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 January 2010

Jacques Freymond
Jacques Freymond*
Affiliation:
Member of the International Committee of the Red Cross
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

We take pleasure in publishing the following study which was written in the spring of 1971. Some passages, as readers will observe, are no longer topical, such as the information given on the Conference of Government Experts, for our readers will know that, the 1971 conference is being followed by a second session from 3 May to 3 June 1972, in Geneva.

The study appeared in L'Univers politique 1970, and we express our thanks to the Editions Richelieu, Paris, for authorizing reproduction in our Review. (Ed.)

Type
Research Article
Information
International Review of the Red Cross (1961 - 1997) , Volume 12 , Issue 134 , May 1972 , pp. 245 - 266
Copyright
Copyright © International Committee of the Red Cross 1972

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

1

This study is largely based on the author's personal experience. It should, however, be stressed that the ICRC's publications, particularly its annual reports and the International Review of the Red Cross, have made it possible to reconstruct the essence of the institution's action. It should be added that the Committee has from time to time published a compendium of documents on some particularly important or controversial subject, e.g. Documents sur l'activité du Comité international de la Croix-Rouge en faveur des civils détenus dans les camps de concentration en Allemagne (1939–1945), 3e éd., Genève, 1947; The I.C.R.C. and the Conflict in Cuba (1958–1959), Geneva; and The I.C.R.C. and the Yemen Conflict, Geneva, 1964. Reference may also be made to the International Red Cross Handbook (Geneva), which contains texts essential to an understanding of the structure and policy of the International Red Cross, and to the Commentaries on the 1949 Geneva Conventions published under the general editorship of Jean Pictet.

As a rule, the resolutions of International Conferences of the Red Cross are published in separate fascicles, as are the reports on Conferences of Experts convened to study any specific aspects of the Conventions.

It should be noted that the official records of those conferences are available. If reference is made to the many press conferences held over the past few years and to articles written by the permanent Geneva correspondents of some major Swiss and foreign newspapers, the conclusion will be reached that ICRC activities are widely known and that the so-called “revelations” are no more than side-lights on history. Several international jurists who are experts in humanitarian law, such as Jean Pictet, Denise Bindschedler, Col. G.I.A.D. Draper, Dietrich Schindler and Frédéic Siordet, should be mentioned. Lastly, it should be noted that a great many theses based on the very rich archives of the ICRC are being prepared.

References

2 Cf. Freymond, Jacques, “Nigéria-Biafra: l'aide aux victimes de la guerre civile”, Preuves, 1er trim. 1970, pp. 70–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3 Cf. Mertens, Pierre, “Le Comité international de la Croix-Rouge et le conflit du Biafra”, Annuaire frangais de droit international, 15, 1969, pp. 183–209 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The author concluded thus: (Our translation) “It is now realized that, bearing in mind the difficulties it encountered and the obstacles which were put in its way, the ICRC has launched one of the most remarkable, and at the same time most desperate, international operations for public welfare of our times” (pp. 208–209).

4 Article 85 reads thus: “Prisoners of war prosecuted under the laws of the Detaining Powers for acts committed prior to capture shall retain, even if convicted, the benefits of the present Convention”. The reservation reads as follows: the Democratic Republic of Vietnam “does not consider itself bound by the obligation, which follows from Article 85, to extend the application of the Convention to prisoners of war who have been convicted under the law of the Detaining Power, in accordance with the principles of the Nuremberg Trial, for war crimes and crimes against humanity, it being understood that persons convicted of such crimes must be subject to the conditions obtaining in the country in question for those who undergo their punishment”. Cf. Pilloud, Claude, Reservations to the 1949 Geneva Conventions, Geneva, 1958, pp. 18–23.Google Scholar

5 Jacques Moreillon, an ICRC delegate, will shortly publish a thesis entitled Le Comité international de la Croix-Rouge et les détenus politiques. It contains an unusual survey of ICRC activity in a field about which little is known.

6 According to a widespread version of the Zerka crisis, a conflict of personalities during the action led to internal dissension regarding the principle of ICRC commitment. What happened was that, once the ICRC was involved, through a series of events into which there is no need to enter, there was agreement on the course that should be followed. It was on the timing and the method of disengagement that views differed. The delegate-general abided by the main lines of his instructions. His departure, which the author decided upon on the spot, was one of the stages in a disengagement manoeuvre and did not imply that he was being recalled. Not one of the versions published about the last stage of the Zerka negotiations was accurate, for the simple reason that the press correspondents at Amman were unaware of those negotiations.

7 A delegation of the Committee which, in principle, meets once a week to follow current affairs.

8 Cf. “Respect for Human Rights in Armed Conflicts”, Report of the Secretary-General, United Nations, General Assembly, twenty-fifth session, Doc. A/8052.

9 Two Conferences of Experts were convened early in 1971 on the general subject of the reaffirmation and development of international humanitarian law applicable in armed conflicts. The first of these conferences, which assembled experts appointed by National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, was held at The Hague from 1 to 6 March. The second conference, a gathering of experts appointed by governments, was held in Geneva from 24 May to 12 June. Besides considering measures designed to strengthen the application of the existing law, the experts will particularly study the protection of the civilian population against dangers of hostilities, rules relative to behaviour of combatants, the protection of victims of non-international armed conflicts, and rules applicable in guerrilla warfare.