The condition of our planet today is, to say the least, a cause for great concern. As recently stated by Ms. Gro Harlem Brundtland, Prime Minister of Norway and Chairman of the World Commission on Environment and Development: “We are living in an historic transitional period in which awareness of the conflict between human activities and environmental constraints is literally exploding”. A decisive battle is now under way to preserve a truly endangered planet from the threat of extinction.

Since the 1991 war between Iraq and the coalition powers there has been much interest in the question of how to limit the environmental damage of warfare. In addressing that question, it is necessary to look at the events of the war itself, and to draw some conclusions from that experience as well as from other experience and from more normative approaches.

The problem of protecting the environment in time of armed conflict has given rise to numerous discussions and major studies over the last two years.

In our opinion, there are at least two distinct reasons for the keen interest in this question. In the first place it is quite logically a response to the increasingly energetic efforts to improve, both nationally and internationally, the protection of the environment in peacetime. Secondly, this interest reflects the fears engendered during and after the 1990–1991 Gulf war that set the Middle East ablaze.

In recent years a number of institutions, in particular non-governmental organizations, have brought their attention to bear on the plight of people displaced within national borders. Prompted by their interest in the protection of human rights, and in keeping with the charitable nature of their work, they have focused the international spotlight on the situation of those who leave their homes in a context marked by political violence. The international community has thus been made aware of two things simultaneously: first, that countries affected by internal armed conflicts have a large number of displaced persons, and second, that armed clashes often result in large-scale population movements. The displacement of minority communities can even become a deliberate policy.

The ICRC Assembly members were in Germany from 30 September to 2 October 1992 to visit the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Arolsen and two sections of the German Red Cross, in Thüringen and Berlin respectively. This was the first time that the Assembly had travelled abroad, apart from a visit to Solferino.

From September to November 1992 ICRC President Cornelio Sommaruga went on several missions, visiting successively the Republic of Korea, the People's Republic of China, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, the United Kingdom, Tunisia and the United States.