Introduction

The 50 years since the end of the Second World War have been marked by a profusion of armed conflicts that have affected every continent in the world.

Throughout these conflicts, the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 - and in particular Article 3 common to the four Conventions, applicable to non-international armed conflicts - together with the Protocols additional to the Geneva Conventions, adopted on 8 June 1977, have rendered invaluable services by providing legal protection for war victims: the wounded and sick in armed forces in the field; wounded, sick and shipwrecked members of naval forces; prisoners of war and civilians.

Nevertheless, there have also been countless violations of these treaties and of basic humanitarian principles, resulting in suffering and death which might have been avoided had the laws and customs of war been respected. These violations have also made it more difficult to restore peace.

The general opinion is that violations of the humanitarian rules were not due to their inadequacy, but rather to lack of willingness to respect them and, in many cases, to ignorance of their content on the part of both leaders and combatants.

The International Conference for the Protection of War Victims[1], therefore, did not propose the adoption of new treaty provisions. Instead, in its Final Declaration adopted by consensus on 1 September 1993, the Conference reaffirmed "the necessity to make the implementation of humanitarian law more effective", and called upon the Swiss government "to convene an open-ended intergovernmental group of experts to study practical means of promoting full respect for and compliance with that law, and to prepare a report for submission to the States and to the next session of the International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent".

This group of experts met in Geneva from 23 to 27 January 1995, at the invitation of the Swiss government, and adopted a series of recommendations aimed at enhancing respect for humanitarian law, in particular by means of preventive measures that could ensure better knowledge and more effective implementation of the humanitarian rules.

The International Committee of the Red Cross and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies can only welcome the measures proposed by the experts, as they are convinced that these measures can go a long way towards improving respect for humanitarian law and the protection of war victims. They stand ready to do everything in their power to help implement the experts' recommendations.

It is the responsibility of the Swiss government, which convened and chaired the meeting of experts, to present to the 26th International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent a report on their recommendations.

For its part, the International Committee of the Red Cross wishes to explain its position with regard to the recommendations that concern it more directly.

Furthermore, the ICRC and the International Federation wish to outline how the latter and the National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies are already contributing to the effective implementation of the recommendations that concern them, and their possible future contribution in this regard.

That is the purpose of the present report.

Note

1. The Conference was convened in Geneva from 30 August to 1 September 1993 by the Swiss government in its capacity as depositary of the Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols, on the initiative of the ICRC.