• ICRC President Comelio Sommaruga received the members of the International Law Commission (ILC) at ICRC headquarters on 7 June 1990.

The Commission is a subsidiary body of the United Nations General Assembly. Its 34 members are elected from among the most eminent representatives of the world's different legal systems. The Commission is entrusted with the task of promoting the codification and development of international law. It is currently working on the codification of offences against the peace and security of mankind (which include war crimes) and the setting up of an international criminal court.

The starting point of the present study is the clash between the warrior instinct inherent in human nature and Islamic law, the realistic character of which is unanimously acknowledged.

Islam, in fact, cannot tolerate excessive displays of this instinct, which, as Professor Muhammad Taha Badawi points out, is the strongest of all the impulses to which man is inclined. Inseparably linked to all the factors inciting man to make war, and itself at times unleashing war, the warrior instinct, in any case, arouses violence and becomes a reflex action in anyone subjected to the danger of death.

The author commenced an earlier study of the 1980 United Nations Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons (Conventional Weapons Convention) by quoting the late Sir Hersch Lauterpacht's remark: “If international law is, in some ways, the vanishing point of law, the law of war is, perhaps even more conspicuously, at the vanishing point of international law”. He then carried Lauterpacht's statement one stage further to suggest that the vanishing point of the law of war was most likely to be found in the body of law restricting the use of weapons. Shortly after writing these words, the author discovered that a colleague had also used the remarks of Sir Hersch and asserted that the vanishing point of the law of war was the law of air warfare. More recently, the author read a paper by a younger colleague in which Sir Hersch was quoted once again, but this time it was asserted that the vanishing point of the law of war was to be found in the body of law regulating nuclear weapons. The two lessons one might derive from this brief tale are that serious students of the law of war rarely have grandiose expectations for their discipline and that a good quotation is always reusable.

The Council of Delegates of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, which brings together representatives of the National Societies, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the League of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, met on 26 and 27 October 1989 in Geneva.

The forms of violence which are all too frequently encountered in armed conflicts today have given rise to an increase in the numbers of civilian victims, and particularly of children, who, an account of their special vulnerability, are the most seriously affected. The active participation of children in hostilities, too, is a disturbing factor – serious enough to justify the increasing attention the subject is receiving within the international community.

Information and dissemination are integral parts of the present structural design of the Public Relations and Publications Department of the Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC). Although interrelated, the two activities have distinct functions and objectives that set them apart from each other. A system of this kind seems ideal for any National Society which, like the PNRC, is small in size and has meagre human and financial resources. Owing to budgetary constraints at the PNRC, the Head of the Public Relations and Publications Department has to run the “whole show”, except for the field of dissemination where another key person is in charge.

Intensified unrest in the townships caused greater humanitarian needs in 1990, as the disturbances in Natal worsened and spread to other regions as well, first extending down the Indian Ocean coast, and then reaching the townships around Johannesburg. Thousands died, thousands more were wounded, and there was widespread destruction of homes and property. The ICRC, in cooperation with the National Society, acted to relieve the suffering of the victims of this strife by implementing a family relief programme and a relief programme for displaced people in areas affected by the violence.

From late May to July 1990, the President of the ICRC, Mr. Cornelio Sommaruga, carried out missions to Liechtenstein, Czechoslovakia, Belgium and Iceland.

• Principality of Liechtenstein

At the official invitation of Mr. Hans Brunhart, Liechtenstein's Head of Government, and Princess Marie of Liechtenstein, President of the Liechtenstein Red Cross, the ICRC President, accompanied by Mr. Claudio Caratsch, ICRC Vice-President, went to Vaduz on 28 and 29 May 1990.

Neither the Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May be Deemed to be Excessively Injurious or to have Indiscriminate Effects, adopted in Geneva on 10 October 1980, nor the Protocols annexed to it specify in their operative parts the principles on which the prohibitions and restrictions rest. Such principles are, however, found in the preamble to the Convention.

Four of the twelve preambular paragraphs are relevant here. They list: the “general principle of the protection of the civilian population against the effects of hostilities”; the principle “that the right of the parties to an armed conflict to choose methods or means of warfare is not unlimited”; the ban on “the employment in armed conflicts of weapons, projectiles and material and methods of warfare of a nature to cause superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering”; and the fact that it is prohibited “to employ methods or means of warfare which are intended, or may be expected, to cause widespread, longterm and severe damage to the natural environment.” The fifth paragraph reiterates the well-known Martens clause, in the formulation accepted for Article 1, paragraph 2, of Additional Protocol I of 1977.

Mention of Abd-ar-Rahman Al-Awzai (707-774), the Imam of the people of Syria, is found in many ancient Arabic texts such as Ibn an-Nadim's al-Fihrist and Ibn Abi Hatem ar-Razi's al-Jorh wa at Taâdil. More recent texts include the work on Al-Awzai by Dr. Sobhi Mahmassani on Al-Awzai (Beirut, 1978). This article gives a brief account of Al-Awzai's life and several of his ideas on the relationship between those who govern and those who are governed, and especially his contribution to the branch of learning of the siyar or the law of war.

The fighting in Angola's 15-year-old internal conflict worsened in 1990, making it a particularly bleak year for the civilian population. Among the most affected people were those on the Planalto, or central highland, and in the south-east, where droughts and irregular rainfall disturbed food production for the third consecutive year.

Mr. Claudio Caratsch will act as new permanent Vice-President of the International Committee of the Red Cross as from 1 June 1990. He was co-opted as a member of the Committee by the Assembly at its meeting on 9 November 1989 and will take up his duties in that capacity on 1 March 1990.

Emanuel Christen and Elio Erriquez, the two ICRC orthopaedic technicians abducted while on their way to work in Sidon, Lebanon, on 6 October 1989, were released on 8 and 13 August 1990 respectively after 307 and 312 days of captivity.

Both delegates followed the same path to freedom. They were handed over to Syrian forces in Lebanon and then transferred to Damascus where, in the presence of the head of the ICRC's delegation in the Syrian capital, they were entrusted to the care of the Swiss embassy. From Damascus a special aircraft chartered by the ICRC brought them back to Switzerland, where they were welcomed by their families, by Mr. René Felber, head of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, and by ICRC President Mr. Cornelio Sommaruga.

What is the true impact of Red Cross and Red Crescent information in the world today?

The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement's information policy, long a source of controversy, is considered by some to be insufficiently developed and in need of greater attention.

Since its foundation over 125 years ago, the Movement has constantly had to adapt its image to the changing times. This is no easy task for those in charge of shaping its multifaceted image and devising ways to alleviate human suffering, a source of perpetual violence.

The ICRC resumed its regular flights to destinations in Sudan after a six-month interruption during which it had been able to carry out only a few technical flights. As from 3 May ICRC flights were made to the following places in accordance with a flight plan submitted each week to the two parties: Wau, Juba and Malakal from Khartoum; and Kongor, Leer and Bor from Lokichokio (Kenya). The aircraft carried ICRC staff and also seed, tools and various equipment necessary to implement veterinary programmes.

The topic “Communication to promote community services” sounds simple, but it is vital because it points to the contribution that any health-oriented institution should make towards the general success of its undertakings.

On closer examination it will be seen that one basic communication task, which, however, involves a number of sub-tasks all geared towards achieving the same objectives, is the promotion of community services through publicity.

In the Declaration of St. Petersburg of 1868 the signatory States recognized that the object of war is to weaken the enemy's military forces, for which it is sufficient to disable the greatest possible number of men, and that this object would be exceeded by the employment of arms which uselessly aggravate the sufferings of disabled men or render their death inevitable.

This principle was repeated in Article 23(e) of the Regulations annexed to The Hague Convention No. IV of 1907 concerning the laws and customs of war on land. That article forbids the employment of arms, projectiles or material calculated to cause unnecessary suffering. The authentic French text of the article referred to “des armes, des projectiles ou des matières propres à causer des maux superflus” whereas the English text of the same article referred to “arms, projectiles or material calculated to cause superfluous injury”.

The President of the ICRC, accompanied by Mr. Dieter Pfaff of the ICRC's Africa Zone, paid an official visit to Chad from 4 to 7 November 1989. He was received by Mr. Hissen Habré, President of the Republic of Chad, with whom he discussed the question of the Libyan prisoners of war detained in Chad, pointing out the advantages that Chad could derive from closer collaboration with the ICRC, particularly if the ICRC was allowed to carry out its mandate under the Geneva Conventions as regards visits to prisoners of war and their repatriation. An agreement in principle was concluded on this subject between the ICRC and Chad, and it was agreed that the procedure for implementing it should be finalized by, and with the mutual consent of, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the ICRC. The President of the ICRC also had talks with the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Health.

On 13 September 1990, the President of the People's Republic of Mozambique, His Excellency Mr. Joaquim Alberto Chissano, visited the headquarters of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), where he was received by the institution's President, Mr. Cornelio Sommaruga, and several members of the Committee. Mr. Chissano was accompanied by Dr. P. Mocumbi, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and by Mozambique's Ambassador in Paris and Geneva.