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 President of the Republic of Venezuela, Mr. Luis Herrera Campins, came to the headquarters of the ICRC, on 12 June 1981, accompanied by Mrs. de Herrera Campins and their suite. They were welcomed by ICRC President Mr. Alexandre Hay. The members of the Committee, the directors of the ICRC and Mr. Henrik Beer, Secretary-General of the League of Red Cross Societies, were presented to the presidential couple.

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”,

On 6 July 1981 the Solomon Islands deposited with the Swiss Government instruments containing its declaration of succession to the Four Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 for the protection of war victims, pursuant to the previous ratification of those Conventions by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

The Government of Grenada, in a letter dated 25 March 1981 addressed to the Swiss Federal Council and received on 13 April 1981, confirmed its participation in the four Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 for the protection of the victims of war, pursuant to their ratifification by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

While in Switzerland, the President of the Republic of Austria, Mr. Rudolf Kirchschläger, visited the headquarters of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva on 9 September 1981. As guest of the Swiss Federal Council during his State visit, Mr. Kirchschläger, was accompanied by Mr. Kurt Furgler, President of the Swiss Confederation and Mr. Georges-André Chevallaz, Federal Councillor, as well as the Austrian Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of External Commerce.

The President of the ICRC, Mr. Alexandre Hay, visited Washington from September 13 to 17 for talks with senior representatives of the United States administration. It was his first official visit to the United States. Mr. Hay was accompanied by Mr. J.-P. Hocké, director of the department of Operations in ICRC, Mr. A. Modoux, head of the division Press and Information, Mr. M. Veuthey, head of the division for International Organisations.

On 8 May 1981, the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs sent to the States Parties to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 a notification concerning Protocol I adopted on 10 June 1977:

The Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, not having received from the States concerned, within the period of 90 days, any objection to its proposal, dated 20 January 1981, to make a correction to the authentic French and Spanish texts of Protocol I, where an error had been found, has made the proposed correction in the authentic French and Spanish texts of article 59, paragraph 2, first sentence.

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.

The ICRC delegation in Chad was re-opened in N'Djamena on 1 March 1981. Previously, since December 1980, the delegates working in N'Djamena had to cross over to Kousseri on the Cameroon side of the Chari River every evening, for safety.

On the African continent, the ICRC's most complex operation continued to be in Angola, where an ICRC office was opened in Bie at the start of May, supplementing the delegation already established in Luanda and the sub-delegation in Huambo. However, as previously mentioned, ICRC operations for the displaced population in the country's highlands had to be suspended on May 2 because of the high security risks involved.