1 The Conference began in 1973 and held its final session in 1977. It was preceded by a preparatory Conference of Government Experts that met in 1971 and 1972.

2 Protocols I and II Additional to the Geneva Conventions of August 12, 1949.

3 Since 1976 Afghanistan, Peru, Colombia and Central America have experienced guerrilla conflicts that have achieved new records of cruelty and inhumanity.

4 These questions were extensively debated at a Conference on the Teaching and Dissemination of Humanitarian Law held at Naivasha, Kenya, from September 25 to 30, 1983, under the auspices of the Faculty of Law of the University of Nairobi and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

5 E.g., the Red Brigades in Italy, Armenians in Turkey and secessionist movements of Brittany and Corsica in France.

6 E.g., marginalized groups of immigrants from Asia, Africa and the Caribbean in London, and Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland.

7 The Ugandan Army currently fighting political dissidents is a good example.

8 The Naivasha Conference, supra note 4, moreover felt that the two endeavors required quite different skills and should therefore not necessarily be undertaken by the same institution.