Promoting the implementation, dissemination and observance of international humanitarian law has assumed a more crucial place than ever among measures aimed at preventing grave threats to the life and dignity of the individual in armed conflicts. Regional governmental organizations have a vital role to play in this respect. Indeed, emergency humanitarian action and other humanitarian issues, such as the problem of displaced people, anti-personnel landmines and the security of humanitarian workers, figure on their agenda and are often discussed during their meetings.

Esperantism as a movement began at the end of the nineteenth century. It advocated the adoption as an international language of the auxiliary language invented by Dr Lazarus Zamenhof, a Pole, in 1887. At first only the dream of a young man appalled by the violence in his native city Bialystok, whose four cultures, four religions and four languages were perpetually at loggerheads, Esperanto became over the years what it now is, the foremost international language ever invented.

The role of public advocate on humanitarian issues appears to be a growing one for components of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. Before the specific matter of public advocacy can be addressed, however, it is important first to consider—or even, perhaps, reconsider—the statutory or constitutional position of the Red Cross and Red Crescent.

(1) The present Rules govern access to the ICRC's archives, which comprise:

• the archives of the ICRC's decision-making bodies;

• the archives of Committee members;

• the archives of the various units at headquarters;

• the archives of individual delegations;

• archival material from other sources which are kept at the ICRC.

The word “neutral” comes from the Latin ne-uter and means: neither one thing nor the other. An institution or a movement is neutral when it refrains from participating in a conflict or altercation and abstains from any interference. Refraining from participation and abstaining from interference can be for various reasons: it may be a question of self-preservation and self-assertion, of the judgement that good and bad, true and false are to be found on both sides, of holding back in the interests of a higher purpose or a special task. Neutrality may however have its origin in indifference, fear and cowardice. Neutrality in itself is therefore not a virtue.

The United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (HABITAT II) was held in Istanbul from 3 to 14 June 1996. On behalf of the ICRC, Mr Jacques Forster, member of the Committee, gave an address entitled “Survival of the civilian population in wartime”. The Review is publishing part of his statement.

I shall speak today of a bright prospect for our world which can become a reality if we all believe in it and work together for it.

I express this hope in the same spirit that prevailed at the first International Conference — convened 132 years ago — which overcame the misgivings of the sceptics and led to the creation of the initial Geneva Convention. That treaty conferred protection on wounded and sick soldiers in time of war and on those who cared for them. Since then, the same protection has been given in international law to wounded and sick members of the armed forces at sea, prisoners of war, civilians in wartime and -- to some extent owing to the change in the nature of conflict over recent decades -- vulnerable victims of civil strife.

A great deal has occurred this year in relation to the regulation of both conventional weapons and weapons of mass destruction. Actually, there is no such dual categorization of arms in international humanitarian law, which regulates all weapons in accordance with certain generally applicable rules in order to prevent excessive suffering and destruction. All of the work and comments of the International Committee of the Red Cross with regard to weapons, whatever their nature from a strategic standpoint, are aimed at assuring the faithful and impartial application of these rules of international humanitarian law.

The world is weighed down by the victims of too many tragedies. Today, at this 26th International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, it is in the name of those victims, the sole reason for our presence here, that I am addressing the representatives of the States party to the Geneva Conventions and those of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. Our Movement is faced with the challenge of protecting and assisting these hapless individuals, whose numbers, alas, are growing day by day. Moreover, the situations in which we have to take action are ever more complex, whether they result from natural or technological disasters, which often occur in developing countries where there is no proper infrastructure, or from armed conflicts and other forms of violence affecting entire populations whose authorities are generally powerless to protect them. It is our solidarity with the victims of these situations that gives us our strength — and this solidarity is expressed through the separate but complementary activities conducted by the National Societies, their International Federation and the ICRC. The complementary nature of our respective tasks, which is the result of experience and is enshrined in our Statutes, is precisely what makes us effective.

A group of researchers in the United States who have set themselves the task of locating the fortunes deposited in Swiss banks by victims — mostly Jewish — of Nazi persecution have laid their hands on a series of documents originating from the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the American intelligence service which was the predecessor of the CIA. These documents, bearing dates in 1944 and 1945, contain allegations concerning individuals who worked for the ICRC during the Second World War.

Commission I, which was chaired by H.E. Ambassador Hisashi Owada, Permanent Representative of Japan to the United Nations in New York, had two main items on its agenda: discussion of the follow-up to the 1993 International Conference for the Protection of War Victims held in Geneva and action to be taken in that regard by the 26th International Conference, and examination of a number of humanitarian issues relating to the protection of the civilian population in times of armed conflict. The Commission also took note of the San Remo Manual on International Law Applicable to Armed Conflicts at Sea.

Resolution 1 adopted by the 26th International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent (Geneva, 1995) endorsed the recommendations drawn up by an intergovernmental group of experts charged with translating the Final Declaration of the International Conference for the Protection of War Victims (Geneva, August/September 1993) into proposals for “concrete and effective measures”. These recommendations are addressed primarily to the States party to the Geneva Conventions, including the depositary of those instruments. However, the ICRC, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and the National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies are also urged to contribute to the effort of achieving better implementation of international humanitarian law, the main objective being to prevent violations from occurring.