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Abstract

In analyzing the two 1977 Protocols additional to the Geneva Conventions for the protection of war victims one should never forget that they are not the product of a sudden inspiration. The first cornerstone for Protocol 1, on international armed conflicts, was laid in the early Fifties. The Draft Rules for the Limitation of the Dangers incurred by the Civilian Population in Time of War, drawn up by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and submitted to the Nineteenth International Red Cross Conference (New Delhi, 1957), were an unsuccessful attempt to improve the protection of the civilian population against the effect of hostilities: the predecessor of Part IV of Protocol I. The legal staff of the ICRC built largely on this text - and on the experience of its rejection - while drafting the new text which eventually became Protocol I.

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