The author of the following important article is president of the Section sociale du Conseil d'Etat français. When, in 1968, he was awarded the René Sand prize at the fourteenth International Conference of the International Council on Social Welfare he delivered a speech on “Human Rights, Social Work and Social Policy”.The Red Cross was represented not only because many of the delegates were members of our movement but also because the ceremony recalled the memory of Rene Sand, who had been a leading light of the Belgian Red Cross. International Review has published several of his writings, one of which he concluded with the following words revealing the active idealism which was typical of him: “The human instinct, which sometimes goes astray but is more often led astray, tends towards goodwill and peace, not towards war”.We are grateful to the René Sand prize-winner for having also contributed to our publication.