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Civil Uc

March 10 72- 1 arch 2012
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It is necessary to determine how you can-alleviate the plight of the population before the war,
before the start of hostilities It is too late when the war has started. General Georges Saint-Paul

he International Civil gue of Nations, localities, places or gues and friends, Henri George, took
Defence Organization zones which would in case of armed over the Association as its Secretary-
T (ICDO) celebrates the conflict be preserved from all com- General. On Henri George's initia-
World Day of Civil Protection bat and could not be used for military tive the Association was able to ob-
and the fortieth anniversary of purposes. tain the creation of neutral zones for
the entry into force of the Char- some categories of non-combatants in
ter of the Organization on 1 The Surgeon-General Georges Saint- the Spanish Civil War (1936, Madrid
March 2012. ICDO is one of the Paul died in 1937 and, in the same and Bilbao) and also in the Sino-Ja-
oldest humanitarian organiza- year, the Association was transferred, panese conflict (1937, Shanghai and
tions in the world, dating back to
the "Geneva Zones".

The notion of "Geneva Zones" was
employed for the first time in a
medical journal in 1929 by the French
Surgeon-General Georges Saint-Paul.
Subsequently, this idea was developed
in newspaper articles and at numerous
conferences. The concept behind the
"Geneva Zones" was in effect to create
well-demarcated safety zones or loca-
lities in all countries established on
a permanent basis and recognized as
such, already in peacetime through
bilateral or international agreements.
In 1931 Georges Saint-Paul founded
in Paris the "Lieux de Genève Asso-
ciation" or "Geneva Zones Associa-
tion", which subsequently became the
present ICDO.

Later, in 1935, on the initiative of
the "Geneva Zones Association", the at his request, from Paris to Geneva Nanking). Although the impact was
French Parliament unanimously and became the International Asso- relatively small, it demonstrated
adopted a resolution inviting the Lea- ciation for the Protection of Civilian that the idea of safety zones could be
gue of Nations to study the means of Populations and Historic Buildings in applied. In spite of this, none of the
creating in every country, according Wartime. After Georges Saint-Paul's belligerents agreed to create safety
to agreements ratified by the Lea- death, one of his most faithful collea- zones during the Second World War.

24 International
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