The International Review of the Red Cross is 125 years old — an age which might well be called venerable, unless the term “honourable” is preferred, but in any case a surprising age for a publication.

Periodical publications which have lasted for so long are rare indeed, and the number of such international and multilingual reviews can be counted on the fingers of one hand.

Few journals have the opportunity, as the Review has today, of celebrating their 125th anniversaries. A more suitable occasion could hardly be found to highlight the publication's important contribution to the study of a broad range of subjects, including the Fundamental Principles of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, international humanitarian law, the activities of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, the history of humanitarian ideas and of those who have championed them, world peace and international ethical standards. In fact, an outstanding feature of the Review over the past fifty years has been the very scope and diversity of the subjects it addresses. Two of these, among others, have played a significant role in the development of the Movement.

To mark his seventieth birthday, Jean Pictet, Honorary Vice-President of the ICRC, gave a lecture at the University of Geneva on 16 November 1984 entitled “The formation of international humanitarian law”.

A remarkable summary of the development of humanitarian law in the twentieth century, it concludes with remarks which go well beyond the original subject. They express his thoughts about the difficult relationships between humanitarian imperatives and military and political necessities and between idealism and pragmatism; reference is also made to everyone's responsibility to disseminate and apply a law which stems not only from humanity but also from common sense.

Officers, soldiers, medical personnel and the inhabitants of areas near and far from the theatre of war — these are the categories of people whom writers should address to explain, in the language best suited to each, the basic humanitarian ideas and sentiments which it is so urgent to impress on their minds and hearts.

(Bulletin international des Sociétés de secours aux militaires blessés. No. 1, October 1869.)

The Franco-Prussian War of 1870 had shown just how difficult it was to ensure respect for international law during actual fighting. Mutual accusations of violations of the Geneva Convention, or more generally of the customary laws of war, showed that neither the scope of humanitarian law nor the dissemination of its principles had been sufficient to avert excesses by the combatants. The protection of medical services and of the wounded should remain independent of the conduct of hostilities. But violations of the law of war, whether real or imagined, inevitably undermine the implementation of the Convention. Public opinion (quickly aroused), the press (always keen on shoring up the spirit of resistance), and governments themselves never miss an opportunity to highlight or exaggerate criminal acts committed by the adversary and to make a blanket condemnation of all enemy combatants.

Institutions — like individuals — have a memory. They are rooted in it and draw strength from it to weather the vagaries of vogue and sentiment. To a large extent the historical consciousness is the source of the standards set for the present and for the future.

Yet time does take its toll, first dimming the memory of past events, then shrouding them in the mists of oblivion.

Dealing with a question of this breadth may seem an impossible task. Furthermore, it would certainly not be intelligent to claim to have found the solution to the problem of peace and humanity. The first mark of intelligence is precisely knowing one's limits, and it is clear that we can only try to guess at potential answers to such a vast question; to do this we would need to look at the past so as better to understand the future.

At its meeting on 11 November 1994, the Assembly of the International Committee of the Red Cross appointed a new member, Professor Ernst A. Brugger.

Professor Brugger, of Gossau in the canton of Zurich and Möriken in the canton of Aargau, Switzerland, was born in 1947. He holds a degree in economic geography and a doctorate in natural sciences from the University of Zurich, where he now lectures.