The Protocols additional to the Geneva Conventions, adopted in 1977, broaden the protection afforded by international law to wounded, sick and shipwrecked members of armed forces and to medical personnel, medical units and military medical transports in certain circumstances. Their main purpose, however, is to extend to civilians, civilian medical personnel etc. the protection which hitherto was enjoyed only by military personnel. Thanks to the Additional Protocols, military personnel and civilians today enjoy equal protection.

This paper deals with the provisions of contemporary international humanitarian law which prohibit “terrorist acts”, commonly referred to, simply, as “terrorism”.

Since the paper is mainly of a descriptive nature, experts in international humanitarian law will learn little that is new. But if it succeeds in highlighting one specific aspect of the well-known obligations and prohibitions set forth in the Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols—namely, the absolute and unconditional ban on terrorism—the objective will be attained. A few basic facts will then have been recalled which should make it somewhat easier to tackle the complex questions as to the essence and legal bounds of guerrilla warfare.

Since 1981, the ICRC has maintained regular contact with the United Nations International Law Commission, a subsidiary body of the United Nations General Assembly. The Commission is composed of 34 members, elected from among the most eminent representatives of all the world's legal systems. Its mandate under the UN Charter is to work for the codification and progressive development of international law.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has approached Mr. Cornelio Sommaruga, at present Swiss State Secretary for External Economic Affairs, to succeed Mr. Alexandre Hay, who has expressed the desire to retire from the presidency of the Institution before the end of his third term of office, which expires at the end of 1988.

Mr. Sommaruga has just accepted the ICRC's proposal. He will take up his duties during 1987 on a date to be specified later. Until then President Hay will continue in office full-time.

The Assembly of the International Committee of the Red Cross, in its meeting of 5 June 1986, appointed Mr. André Ghelfi as a member of the Executive Board. He will take up his duties at the meeting of the Executive Board on 1 October 1986.

Mr. André Ghelfi has been a member of the ICRC Assembly since 9 May 1985.

ICRC President Alexandre Hay, accompanied by the ICRC Delegate General for the Middle East and North Africa, travelled to Rabat on 28 June to have talks with King Hassan II of Morocco on humanitarian issues related to the Western Sahara conflict.

After preliminary discussions with Foreign Affairs Minister Filali, Mr. Skalli, who was formerly Ambassador in Geneva and is now the head of the political department at the Foreign Affairs Ministry, and other Moroccan government officials, Mr. Hay was received by the King in the company of the Foreign Affairs Minister and a high ranking Army officer.

During his stay in Geneva, Mr. Richard von Weizsäcker, President of the Federal Republic of Germany, visited the International Committee of the Red Cross on 12 June 1986. He was received by Mr. Alexandre Hay, President of the ICRC, and members of the Committee and Directorate. Mr. von Weizsäcker and Mr. Hay discussed various humanitarian issues during their meeting, which gave the ICRC President the opportunity to emphasize how much the Federal Republic of Germany's support to the institution'activities was appreciated.

Mr. Abdou Diouf, President of the Republic of Senegal and current Chairman of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), and Mrs. Abdou Diouf, Honorary President of the Senegalese Red Cross, visited the ICRC on 18 June 1986.

Mr. Diouf was received by Mr. Alexandre Hay, President of the ICRC, members of the Committee and Directorate and heads of the main services of the institution. Cheikh Hamidou Kane, Minister of Planning and Co-operation, Mr. Andre Sonko, Minister of Public Offices, Work and Employment, Mrs. Mantoulaye Guene, Minister of Social Development, and Mr. Alioune Sene, Ambassador to Switzerland and Permanent Representative of Senegal to the Office of the United Nations at Geneva, accompanied Mr. Diouf during his visit.

The Republic of Equatorial Guinea deposited with the Swiss Government its instruments of accession to the four Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 and to Additional Protocols I and II adopted on 8 June 1977.

Pursuant to their provisions, the Geneva Conventions and the Protocols will enter into force for the Republic of Equatorial Guinea on 24 January 1987.

On 29 July 1986 Jamaica deposited with the Swiss Government an instrument of accession to the Protocols additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 and relating to the protection of victims of international armed conflicts (Protocol I) and non-international armed conflicts (Protocol II), adopted in Geneva on 8 June 1977.

In accordance with their provisions, the Protocols will come into force for Jamaica on 29 January 1987.

For reasons of health, Mr. Michel Testuz has been obliged to give up his position as editor of the International Review of the Red Cross, in which he served with distinction since 1977, and enter into early retirement.

Those who have seen him at work, during a career devoted to the humanitarian cause for nearly forty years, and in particular the readers of the Review, will greatly regret this decision and the loss it entails, while deferring to the circumstances which made it necessary. This scholarly man, with his rich culture and brilliance as an editor, maintained the standards of this traditional voice of the ICRC at the high level befitting its function and assured the universal respect it enjoys.

Mr. Jacques Meurant, who succeeds Mr. Michel Testuz as editor of the International Review of the Red Cross, was born in Lille, France, in 1932. After studying in Lille and Paris, Mr. Meurant became a teacher in 1957 and taught English at the Henry IV High School and the Jules Ferry High School in Paris.

Following a period with the French Red Cross, Mr. Meurant went to the League of Red Cross Societies in January 1962 as Special Assistant attached to the Secretary General's office.

Mr. J.-M. Bornet, ICRC delegate-general for Africa, went to Khartoum where he was received on 3 June by the Sudanese Prime Minister, Mr. Sadiq el Mahdi. The discussions centred mainly on the ICRC's work in Sudan and in the Horn of Africa.

The ICRC continued the operation undertaken from Kenya in April (ICRC office and storage depots in Lodwar-Lokichogio), involving the provision of relief supplies and the evacuation of the wounded in southern Sudan, continued. However, because of adverse weather and dangerous conditions, the operation was scarcely stepped up despite the increase in the number of displaced people in the Narus area (20,000 by the end of June).