The World Food Summit, organized by the FAO and attended by some 150 governments, was held in Rome in November 1996. The ICRC took part in the proceedings as an observer and its Vice-President addressed the conference. A paper outlining the ICRC's approach and experience regarding the issue of food security in armed conflicts was distributed to the participants. The text of that document is reproduced below.

A two-day seminar entitled “International humanitarian law: its significance in the modern world” and organized jointly by the department of the Judge Advocate General of the Indian army, the ICRC and the Indian Red Cross Society was held in New Delhi on 28 and 29 August 1996. It was the second seminar of its kind, the first having taken place in 1988.

Commission II met under the chairmanship of Mr Ousmane Diagne, President of the Senegalese Red Cross, to discuss humanitarian values and response to crisis. Representatives of the Federation and the ICRC began the proceedings by introducing the topics outlined in two documents entitled “Principles and response in international humanitarian assistance and protection” and “Strengthening capacity to assist and protect the most vulnerable” (Docs. 95/C.II/2/1 and 95/C.II/3/1 respectively).

The Republic of Lithuania acceded on 3 October 1996, without making any declaration or reservations, to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949.

On 5 September 1995, three ICRC delegates, including a doctor and an interpreter, visited the only person being held at the time on the authority of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague.1 Since then, another visit has taken place during which this detainee was seen again and two others were visited for the first time. The detainees are being held in a prison in the Netherlands, in a wing set aside for the Tribunal and specially converted to house people detained on its authority.

Following consultations with relevant international agencies, international organizations and non-governmental organizations, the States represented at the Ottawa Conference, the ‘Ottawa Group’, have agreed to enhance cooperation and coordination of efforts on the basis of the following concerns and goals with respect to anti-personnel mines:

1. a recognition that the extreme humanitarian and socio-economic costs associated with the use of anti-personnel mines requires urgent action on the part of the international community to ban and eliminate this type of weapon;

2. a conviction that until such a ban is achieved, States must work to encourage universal adherence to the prohibitions or restrictions on antipersonnel mines as contained in the amended Protocol II of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons;

On 11 October 1996 the Argentine Republic made a declaration accepting the competence of the International Fact-Finding Commission, in accordance with Article 90, paragraph 2 (a), of the Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I). It thereby recognizes ipso facto and without special agreement, in relation to any other High Contracting Party accepting the same obligation, the competence of the Commission to enquire into allegations by such other Party.

During the second plenary meeting, the Conference unanimously adopted an amendment to the Movement's Statutes and Rules of Procedure, replacing all references to the “League of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies” throughout the texts by “International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies”. This amendment had been adopted by the General Assembly of the Federation in 1991.

The Peace Agreement for Bosnia and Herzegovina was concluded on 21 November 1995 in Dayton (United States) and signed in Paris on 14 December 1995 by the Presidents of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the Republic of Croatia. The Agreement brought the hostilities on the territory of the former Yugoslavia to an end.

The emblem of the red cross or red crescent occupies a very important place in international humanitarian law. In time of war, the emblem is the visible sign of the protection conferred by the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocols of 1977 on medical personnel and medical units and transports.

Having regard to:

— the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 and their Additional Protocols of 8 June 1977, including Annex I to Additional Protocol I as regards the rules on identification of medical units and transports;

— the Regulations on the Use of the Emblem of the Red Cross or the Red Crescent by the National Societies, as adopted by the 20th International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, and subsequent amendments;

— the law (decree, or other instrument) of … (date) recognizing the Red Cross (Red Crescent) of …., the following are protected by the present law:

— the emblem of the red cross or red crescent on a white ground;

— the designation “Red Cross” or “Red Crescent”;

— the distinctive signals for identifying medical units and transports.

The third plenary meeting began with an account by the Rapporteurs of the work of the two Commissions. Professor José Manuel Carrilho Ribeiro, President of the Portuguese Red Cross, reported on the work of Commission I (see pp. 36–42 above) and Mr Jaime J. Yambao, Minister Counsellor, Permanent Mission of the Philippines, reported on the work of Commission II (see pp. 43–48 above).

On 18 October 1996 the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia deposited an instrument with the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs in which the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia declared that his country would maintain the reservations and declarations made by the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia regarding the 1949 Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols.

Mongolia ratified on 6 December 1995 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.