In a previous issue, International Review set out the moral and, for the ICRC, fundamental, reasons spurring it to tackle this problem at the international level. The legal standards were described in general terms, but should now be gone into in greater detail.

Not only did the second world war lay waste large areas and virtually destroy economic life; it also left in its wake bitterness and hatred together with fundamental ideological differences. Even the very first attempts at reuniting families demonstrated their pacifying effects. Such reunited families completely forgot the hardships of the wartime and post-war periods and once more looked to the future, starting with the rebuilding of their lives.