The Movement logo in the six official languages: English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese and Russian
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The Azerbaijan Conventions' three emblems in use: Red Cross, Red Crescent, Red Crystal
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| Founded |
Geneva, Switzerland |
|---|---|
| Founders | Henry Dunant, Gustave Moynier, Théodore Maunoir, Guillaume-Henri Dufour, Louis Appia |
| Type | Non-governmental organization, Non-profit organization |
| Focus | Humanitarianism |
| Location | |
Area served
| Worldwide |
| Method | Aid |
Volunteers
| Around 17 million |
| Website | www |
The Red Cross and Red Crescent emblems, the symbols from which the movement derives its name, Genève 2005
The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is an international humanitarian movement with approximately 17 million volunteers, members and staff worldwide
which was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure respect
for all human beings, and to prevent and alleviate human suffering.
The movement consists of several distinct organizations that are
legally independent from each other, but are united within the movement
through common basic principles, objectives, symbols, statutes and
governing organisations. The movement's parts are:
- The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is a private humanitarian institution founded in 1863 in Geneva, Switzerland, in particular by Henry Dunant and Gustave Moynier. Its 25-member committee has a unique authority under international humanitarian law to protect the life and dignity of the victims of international and internal armed conflicts. The ICRC was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on three occasions (in 1917, 1944 and 1963).
- The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) was founded in 1919 and today it coordinates activities between the 190 National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies within the Movement. On an international level, the Federation leads and organizes, in close cooperation with the National Societies, relief assistance missions responding to large-scale emergencies. The International Federation Secretariat is based in Geneva, Switzerland. In 1963, the Federation (then known as the League of Red Cross Societies) was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize jointly with the ICRC.
- National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies exist in nearly every country in the world. Currently 190 National Societies are recognized by the ICRC and admitted as full members of the Federation. Each entity works in its home country according to the principles of international humanitarian law and the statutes of the international Movement. Depending on their specific circumstances and capacities, National Societies can take on additional humanitarian tasks that are not directly defined by international humanitarian law or the mandates of the international Movement. In many countries, they are tightly linked to the respective national health care system by providing emergency medical services.
History
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
Solferino, Jean-Henri Dunant and foundation.
Jean-Henri Dunant, author of A Memory of Solferino.
Until the middle of the 19th century, there were no organized and/or
well-established army nursing systems for casualties and no safe and
protected institutions to accommodate and treat those who were wounded
on the battlefield. A devout Reformed Christian, the Swiss businessman Jean-Henri Dunant, in June 1859, traveled to Italy to meet French emperor Napoléon III with the intention of discussing difficulties in conducting business in Algeria, at that time occupied by France. He arrived in the small town of Solferino on the evening of 24 June after the Battle of Solferino, an engagement in the Austro-Sardinian War.
In a single day, about 40,000 soldiers on both sides died or were left
wounded on the field. Jean-Henri Dunant was shocked by the terrible
aftermath of the battle, the suffering of the wounded soldiers, and the
near-total lack of medical attendance and basic care. He completely
abandoned the original intent of his trip and for several days he
devoted himself to helping with the treatment and care for the wounded.
He took point in organizing an overwhelming level of relief assistance
with the local villagers to aid without discrimination.
Original document of the First Geneva Convention, 1864
Back in his home in Geneva, he decided to write a book entitled A Memory of Solferino
which he published using his own money in 1862. He sent copies of the
book to leading political and military figures throughout Europe, and
people he thought could help him make a change. In addition to penning a
vivid description of his experiences in Solferino in 1859, he
explicitly advocated the formation of national voluntary relief
organizations to help nurse wounded soldiers in the case of war, an idea
that was inspired by Christian teaching regarding social
responsibility, as well as his experience after the battlefield of
Solferino.
In addition, he called for the development of an international treaty
to guarantee the protection of medics and field hospitals for soldiers
wounded on the battlefield.
In 1863, Gustave Moynier,
a Geneva lawyer and president of the Geneva Society for Public Welfare,
received a copy of Dunant's book and introduced it for discussion at a
meeting of that society. As a result of this initial discussion the
society established an investigatory commission to examine the
feasibility of Dunant's suggestions and eventually to organize an
international conference about their possible implementation. The
members of this committee, which has subsequently been referred to as
the "Committee of the Five," aside from Dunant and Moynier were
physician Louis Appia, who had significant experience working as a field surgeon; Appia's friend and colleague Théodore Maunoir, from the Geneva Hygiene and Health Commission; and Guillaume-Henri Dufour, a Swiss Army
general of great renown. Eight days later, the five men decided to
rename the committee to the "International Committee for Relief to the
Wounded". In October (26–29) 1863, the international conference
organized by the committee was held in Geneva to develop possible
measures to improve medical services on the battlefield. The conference
was attended by 36 individuals: eighteen official delegates from
national governments, six delegates from other non-governmental
organizations, seven non-official foreign delegates, and the five
members of the International Committee. The states and kingdoms
represented by official delegates were: Austrian Empire, Grand Duchy of Baden, Kingdom of Bavaria, French Empire, Kingdom of Hanover, Grand Duchy of Hesse, Kingdom of Italy, Kingdom of the Netherlands, Kingdom of Prussia, Russian Empire, Kingdom of Saxony, Kingdom of Spain, United Kingdoms of Sweden and Norway, and United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
"Committee of the Five": Gustave Moynier, Guillaume-Henri Dufour, Henry Dunant, Louis Appia, Théodore Maunoir
Among the proposals written in the final resolutions of the conference, adopted on 29 October 1863, were:
- The foundation of national relief societies for wounded soldiers;
- Neutrality and protection for wounded soldiers;
- The utilization of volunteer forces for relief assistance on the battlefield;
- The organization of additional conferences to enact these concepts;
- The introduction of a common distinctive protection symbol for medical personnel in the field, namely a white armlet bearing a red cross.
Memorial commemorating the first use of the Red Cross symbol in an armed conflict during the Battle of Dybbøl (Denmark) in 1864; jointly erected in 1989 by the national Red Cross societies of Denmark and Germany.
Only one year later, the Swiss government invited the governments of all European countries, as well as the United States of America, the Empire of Brazil, and the Mexican Empire,
to attend an official diplomatic conference. Sixteen countries sent a
total of twenty-six delegates to Geneva. On 22 August 1864, the
conference adopted the first Geneva Convention
"for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded in Armies in the
Field". Representatives of 12 states and kingdoms signed the convention:
The convention contained ten articles, establishing for the first
time legally binding rules guaranteeing neutrality and protection for
wounded soldiers, field medical personnel, and specific humanitarian
institutions in an armed conflict.
Directly following the establishment of the Geneva Convention,
the first national societies were founded in Belgium, Denmark, France, Oldenburg, Prussia, Spain, and Württemberg. Also in 1864, Louis Appia and Charles van de Velde, a captain of the Dutch Army,
became the first independent and neutral delegates to work under the
symbol of the Red Cross in an armed conflict. Three years later in 1867,
the first International Conference of National Aid Societies for the Nursing of the War Wounded was convened.
Also in 1867, Jean-Henri Dunant was forced to declare bankruptcy due to business failures in Algeria,
partly because he had neglected his business interests during his
tireless activities for the International Committee. Controversy
surrounding Dunant's business dealings and the resulting negative public
opinion, combined with an ongoing conflict with Gustave Moynier, led to
Dunant's expulsion from his position as a member and secretary. He was
charged with fraudulent bankruptcy and a warrant for his arrest was
issued. Thus, he was forced to leave Geneva and never returned to his
home city.
In the following years, national societies were founded in nearly
every country in Europe. The project resonated well with patriotic
sentiments that were on the rise in the late-nineteenth-century, and
national societies were often encouraged as signifiers of national moral
superiority.
In 1876, the committee adopted the name "International Committee of the
Red Cross" (ICRC), which is still its official designation today. Five
years later, the American Red Cross was founded through the efforts of Clara Barton.
More and more countries signed the Geneva Convention and began to
respect it in practice during armed conflicts. In a rather short period
of time, the Red Cross gained huge momentum as an internationally
respected movement, and the national societies became increasingly
popular as a venue for volunteer work.
When the first Nobel Peace Prize was awarded in 1901, the Norwegian Nobel Committee opted to give it jointly to Jean-Henri Dunant and Frédéric Passy,
a leading international pacifist. More significant than the honor of
the prize itself, this prize marked the overdue rehabilitation of
Jean-Henri Dunant and represented a tribute to his key role in the
formation of the Red Cross. Dunant died nine years later in the small
Swiss health resort of Heiden.
Only two months earlier his long-standing adversary Gustave Moynier had
also died, leaving a mark in the history of the Committee as its
longest-serving president ever.
In 1906, the 1864 Geneva Convention was revised for the first time. One year later, the Hague Convention X, adopted at the Second International Peace Conference in The Hague, extended the scope of the Geneva Convention to naval warfare. Shortly before the beginning of the First World War
in 1914, 50 years after the foundation of the ICRC and the adoption of
the first Geneva Convention, there were already 45 national relief
societies throughout the world. The movement had extended itself beyond
Europe and North America to Central and South America (Argentine Republic, the United States of Brazil, the Republic of Chile, the Republic of Cuba, the United Mexican States, the Republic of Peru, the Republic of El Salvador, the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, the United States of Venezuela), Asia (the Republic of China, the Empire of Japan and the Kingdom of Siam), and Africa (Union of South Africa).
World War I
War
1914–1918. Geneva, Rath Museum. International Prisoners-of-War Agency.
Researches department. German section. Express messages and
communications to families.
With the outbreak of World War I,
the ICRC found itself confronted with enormous challenges that it could
handle only by working closely with the national Red Cross societies.
Red Cross nurses from around the world, including the United States and
Japan, came to support the medical services of the armed forces of the
European countries involved in the war. On 15 August 1914, immediately
after the start of the war, the ICRC set up its International
Prisoners-of-War (POW)
Agency, which had about 1,200 mostly volunteer staff members by the end
of 1914. By the end of the war, the Agency had transferred about 20
million letters and messages, 1.9 million parcels, and about 18 million Swiss francs
in monetary donations to POWs of all affected countries. Furthermore,
due to the intervention of the Agency, about 200,000 prisoners were
exchanged between the warring parties, released from captivity and
returned to their home country. The organizational card index of the
Agency accumulated about 7 million records from 1914 to 1923. The card
index led to the identification of about 2 million POWs and the ability
to contact their families. The complete index is on loan today from the
ICRC to the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum in Geneva. The right to access the index is still strictly restricted to the ICRC.
During the entire war, the ICRC monitored warring parties' compliance with the Geneva Conventions of the 1907 revision and forwarded complaints about violations to the respective country. When chemical weapons
were used in this war for the first time in history, the ICRC
vigorously protested against this new type of warfare. Even without
having a mandate from the Geneva Conventions, the ICRC tried to
ameliorate the suffering of civil populations. In territories that were
officially designated as "occupied territories", the ICRC could assist
the civilian population on the basis of the Hague Convention's
"Laws and Customs of War on Land" of 1907. This convention was also the
legal basis for the ICRC's work for prisoners of war. In addition to
the work of the International Prisoner-of-War Agency as described above
this included inspection visits to POW camps. A total of 524 camps
throughout Europe were visited by 41 delegates from the ICRC until the
end of the war.
Between 1916 and 1918, the ICRC published a number of postcards
with scenes from the POW camps. The pictures showed the prisoners in
day-to-day activities such as the distribution of letters from home. The
intention of the ICRC was to provide the families of the prisoners with
some hope and solace and to alleviate their uncertainties about the
fate of their loved ones. After the end of the war, between 1920 and
1922, the ICRC organized the return of about 500,000 prisoners to their
home countries. In 1920, the task of repatriation was handed over to the
newly founded League of Nations, which appointed the Norwegian diplomat and scientist Fridtjof Nansen
as its "High Commissioner for Repatriation of the War Prisoners". His
legal mandate was later extended to support and care for war refugees
and displaced persons when his office became that of the League of
Nations "High Commissioner for Refugees". Nansen, who invented the Nansen passport for stateless refugees and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1922, appointed two delegates from the ICRC as his deputies.
Red Cross ambulance from 1917
A year before the end of the war, the ICRC received the 1917 Nobel
Peace Prize for its outstanding wartime work. It was the only Nobel
Peace Prize awarded in the period from 1914 to 1918. In 1923, the International Committee of the Red Cross
adopted a change in its policy regarding the selection of new members.
Until then, only citizens from the city of Geneva could serve in the
Committee. This limitation was expanded to include Swiss citizens. As a
direct consequence of World War I, a treaty was adopted in 1925 which
outlawed the use of suffocating or poisonous gases and biological agents
as weapons. Four years later, the original Convention was revised and
the second Geneva Convention "relative to the Amelioration of the
Condition of Wounded, Sick and Shipwrecked Members of Armed Forces at
Sea" was established. The events of World War I and the respective
activities of the ICRC significantly increased the reputation and
authority of the Committee among the international community and led to
an extension of its competencies.
As early as in 1934, a draft proposal for an additional
convention for the protection of the civil population in occupied
territories during an armed conflict was adopted by the International
Red Cross Conference. Unfortunately, most governments had little
interest in implementing this convention, and it was thus prevented from
entering into force before the beginning of World War II.
World War II
War 1939–1945. Geneva, Central Prisoners of war Agency, Electoral building / Palace of the General Council
The Red Cross' response to the Holocaust has been the subject of
significant controversy and criticism. As early as May 1944, the ICRC
was criticized for its indifference to Jewish suffering and
death—criticism that intensified after the end of the war, when the full
extent of the Holocaust became undeniable. One defense to these
allegations is that the Red Cross was trying to preserve its reputation
as a neutral and impartial organization by not interfering with what was
viewed as a German internal matter. The Red Cross also considered its
primary focus to be prisoners of war whose countries had signed the Geneva Convention.
The legal basis of the work of the ICRC during World War II were
the Geneva Conventions in their 1929 revision. The activities of the
Committee were similar to those during World War I: visiting and
monitoring POW camps, organizing relief assistance for civilian
populations, and administering the exchange of messages regarding
prisoners and missing persons. By the end of the war, 179 delegates had
conducted 12,750 visits to POW camps in 41 countries. The Central
Information Agency on Prisoners-of-War (Agence centrale des prisonniers de guerre)
had a staff of 3,000, the card index tracking prisoners contained 45
million cards, and 120 million messages were exchanged by the Agency.
One major obstacle was that the Nazi-controlled German Red Cross refused to cooperate with the Geneva statutes including blatant violations such as the deportation of Jews from Germany and the mass murders conducted in the Nazi concentration camps. Moreover, two other main parties to the conflict, the Soviet Union and Japan, were not party to the 1929 Geneva Conventions and were not legally required to follow the rules of the conventions.
During the war, the ICRC was unable to obtain an agreement with
Nazi Germany about the treatment of detainees in concentration camps,
and it eventually abandoned applying pressure in order to avoid
disrupting its work with POWs. The ICRC was also unable to obtain a
response to reliable information about the extermination camps and the
mass killing of European Jews, Roma, et al. After November 1943, the
ICRC achieved permission to send parcels
to concentration camp detainees with known names and locations. Because
the notices of receipt for these parcels were often signed by other
inmates, the ICRC managed to register the identities of about 105,000
detainees in the concentration camps and delivered about 1.1 million
parcels, primarily to the camps Dachau, Buchenwald, Ravensbrück, and Sachsenhausen.
Photo taken by Rossel at Theresienstadt. Most of the children were murdered at Auschwitz in the fall of 1944.
Maurice Rossel
was sent to Berlin as a delegate of the International Red Cross; he
visited Theresienstadt in 1944. The choice of the inexperienced Rossel
for this mission has been interpreted as indicative of his
organization's indifference to the "Jewish problem", while his report
has been described as "emblematic of the failure of the ICRC" to
advocate for Jews during the Holocaust. Rossel's report was noted for its uncritical acceptance of Nazi propaganda. He erroneously stated that Jews were not deported from Theresienstadt. Claude Lanzmann recorded his experiences in 1979, producing a documentary entitled A Visitor from the Living.
Marcel Junod, delegate of the ICRC, visiting POWs in Germany
On 12 March 1945, ICRC president Jacob Burckhardt received a message from SS General Ernst Kaltenbrunner
allowing ICRC delegates to visit the concentration camps. This
agreement was bound by the condition that these delegates would have to
stay in the camps until the end of the war. Ten delegates, among them Louis Haefliger (Mauthausen-Gusen), Paul Dunant (Theresienstadt) and Victor Maurer (Dachau),
accepted the assignment and visited the camps. Louis Haefliger
prevented the forceful eviction or blasting of Mauthausen-Gusen by
alerting American troops.
Friedrich Born (1903–1963), an ICRC delegate in Budapest who saved the lives of about 11,000 to 15,000 Jewish people in Hungary. Marcel Junod (1904–1961), a physician from Geneva was one of the first foreigners to visit Hiroshima after the atomic bomb was dropped.
In 1944, the ICRC received its second Nobel Peace Prize. As in
World War I, it received the only Peace Prize awarded during the main
period of war, 1939 to 1945. At the end of the war, the ICRC worked with
national Red Cross societies to organize relief assistance to those
countries most severely affected. In 1948, the Committee published a
report reviewing its war-era activities from 1 September 1939 to 30 June
1947. The ICRC opened its archives from World War II in 1996.
Budapest 1945. Repatriation of 2000 Italian prisoners of war
After World War II
The ICRC Headquarters in Geneva
On 12 August 1949, further revisions to the existing two Geneva
Conventions were adopted. An additional convention "for the Amelioration
of the Condition of Wounded, Sick and Shipwrecked Members of Armed
Forces at Sea", now called the second Geneva Convention, was brought
under the Geneva Convention umbrella as a successor to the 1907 Hague Convention X.
The 1929 Geneva convention "relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of
War" may have been the second Geneva Convention from a historical point
of view (because it was actually formulated in Geneva), but after 1949
it came to be called the third Convention because it came later
chronologically than the Hague Convention. Reacting to the experience of
World War II, the Fourth Geneva Convention,
a new Convention "relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in
Time of War", was established. Also, the additional protocols of 8 June
1977 were intended to make the conventions apply to internal conflicts
such as civil wars. Today, the four conventions and their added
protocols contain more than 600 articles, a remarkable expansion when
compared to the mere 10 articles in the first 1864 convention.
In celebration of its centennial in 1963, the ICRC, together with the League of Red Cross Societies,
received its third Nobel Peace Prize. Since 1993, non-Swiss individuals
have been allowed to serve as Committee delegates abroad, a task which
was previously restricted to Swiss citizens. Indeed, since then, the
share of staff without Swiss citizenship has increased to about 35%.
On 16 October 1990, the UN General Assembly decided to grant the ICRC observer status
for its assembly sessions and sub-committee meetings, the first
observer status given to a private organization. The resolution was
jointly proposed by 138 member states and introduced by the Italian ambassador, Vieri Traxler,
in memory of the organization's origins in the Battle of Solferino. An
agreement with the Swiss government signed on 19 March 1993, affirmed
the already long-standing policy of full independence of the Committee
from any possible interference by Switzerland. The agreement protects
the full sanctity of all ICRC property in Switzerland including its
headquarters and archive, grants members and staff legal immunity,
exempts the ICRC from all taxes and fees, guarantees the protected and
duty-free transfer of goods, services, and money, provides the ICRC with
secure communication privileges at the same level as foreign embassies,
and simplifies Committee travel in and out of Switzerland.
At the end of the Cold War,
the ICRC's work actually became more dangerous. In the 1990s, more
delegates lost their lives than at any point in its history, especially
when working in local and internal armed conflicts. These incidents
often demonstrated a lack of respect for the rules of the Geneva
Conventions and their protection symbols. Among the slain delegates
were:
- Frédéric Maurice. He died on 19 May 1992 at the age of 39, one day after a Red Cross transport he was escorting was attacked in the Bosnian city of Sarajevo.
- Fernanda Calado (Spain), Ingeborg Foss (Norway), Nancy Malloy (Canada), Gunnhild Myklebust (Norway), Sheryl Thayer (New Zealand), and Hans Elkerbout (Netherlands). They were murdered at point-blank range while sleeping in the early hours of 17 December 1996 in the ICRC field hospital in the Chechen city of Nowije Atagi near Grozny. Their murderers have never been caught and there was no apparent motive for the killings.
- Rita Fox (Switzerland), Véronique Saro (Democratic Republic of the Congo, formerly known as Zaire), Julio Delgado (Colombia), Unen Ufoirworth (DR Congo), Aduwe Boboli (DR Congo), and Jean Molokabonge (DR Congo). On 26 April 2001, they were en route with two cars on a relief mission in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo when they came under fatal fire from unknown attackers.
- Ricardo Munguia (El Salvador). He was working as a water engineer in Afghanistan and travelling with local colleagues on 27 March 2003 when their car was stopped by unknown armed men. He was killed execution-style at point-blank range while his colleagues were allowed to escape. He was 39 years old. The killing prompted the ICRC to temporarily suspend operations across Afghanistan.
- Vatche Arslanian (Canada). Since 2001, he worked as a logistics coordinator for the ICRC mission in Iraq. He died when he was travelling through Baghdad together with members of the Iraqi Red Crescent. On 8 April 2003 their car accidentally came into the cross fire of fighting in the city.
- Nadisha Yasassri Ranmuthu (Sri Lanka). He was killed by unknown attackers on 22 July 2003 when his car was fired upon near the city of Hilla in the south of Baghdad.
Afghanistan War
ICRC is active in the Afghanistan conflict areas and has set up six physical rehabilitation centers to help land mine
victims. Their support extends to the national and international armed
forces, civilians and the armed opposition. They regularly visit
detainees under the custody of the Afghan government and the
international armed forces, but have also occasionally had access since
2009 to people detained by the Taliban.
They have provided basic first aid training and aid kits to both the
Afghan security forces and Taliban members because, according to an ICRC
spokesperson, "ICRC's constitution stipulates that all parties harmed
by warfare will be treated as fairly as possible".
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)
History
Henry Davison, Founding father of the League of Red Cross societies.
In 1919, representatives from the national Red Cross societies of
Britain, France, Italy, Japan, and the US came together in Paris to
found the "League of Red Cross Societies". The original idea was Henry Davison's, then president of the American Red Cross.
This move, led by the American Red Cross, expanded the international
activities of the Red Cross movement beyond the strict mission of the
ICRC to include relief assistance in response to emergency situations
which were not caused by war (such as man-made or natural disasters).
The ARC already had great disaster relief mission experience extending
back to its foundation.
The formation of the League, as an additional international Red
Cross organization alongside the ICRC, was not without controversy for a
number of reasons. The ICRC had, to some extent, valid concerns about a
possible rivalry between both organizations. The foundation of the
League was seen as an attempt to undermine the leadership position of
the ICRC within the movement and to gradually transfer most of its tasks
and competencies to a multilateral institution. In addition to that,
all founding members of the League were national societies from
countries of the Entente
or from associated partners of the Entente. The original statutes of
the League from May 1919 contained further regulations which gave the
five founding societies a privileged status and, due to the efforts of
Henry P. Davison, the right to permanently exclude the national Red
Cross societies from the countries of the Central Powers,
namely Germany, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey, and in addition
to that the national Red Cross society of Russia. These rules were
contrary to the Red Cross principles of universality and equality among
all national societies, a situation which furthered the concerns of the
ICRC.
The first relief assistance mission organized by the League was an aid mission for the victims of a famine and subsequent typhus
epidemic in Poland. Only five years after its foundation, the League
had already issued 47 donation appeals for missions in 34 countries, an
impressive indication of the need for this type of Red Cross work. The
total sum raised by these appeals reached 685 million Swiss francs,
which were used to bring emergency supplies to the victims of famines in
Russia, Germany, and Albania; earthquakes in Chile, Persia,
Japan, Colombia, Ecuador, Costa Rica, and Turkey; and refugee flows in
Greece and Turkey. The first large-scale disaster mission of the League
came after the 1923 earthquake in Japan which killed about 200,000
people and left countless more wounded and without shelter. Due to the
League's coordination, the Red Cross society of Japan received goods
from its sister societies reaching a total worth of about $100 million.
Another important new field initiated by the League was the creation of
youth Red Cross organizations within the national societies.
A stamp from Turkey to support the Red Crescent, 1938.
A joint mission of the ICRC and the League in the Russian Civil War
from 1917 to 1922 marked the first time the movement was involved in an
internal conflict, although still without an explicit mandate from the
Geneva Conventions. The League, with support from more than 25 national
societies, organized assistance missions and the distribution of food
and other aid goods for civil populations affected by hunger and disease. The ICRC worked with the Russian Red Cross society and later the society of the Soviet Union,
constantly emphasizing the ICRC's neutrality. In 1928, the
"International Council" was founded to coordinate cooperation between
the ICRC and the League, a task which was later taken over by the
"Standing Commission". In the same year, a common statute for the
movement was adopted for the first time, defining the respective roles
of the ICRC and the League within the movement.
During the Abyssinian war
between Ethiopia and Italy from 1935 to 1936, the League contributed
aid supplies worth about 1.7 million Swiss francs. Because the Italian
fascist regime under Benito Mussolini
refused any cooperation with the Red Cross, these goods were delivered
solely to Ethiopia. During the war, an estimated 29 people lost their
lives while being under explicit protection of the Red Cross symbol,
most of them due to attacks by the Italian Army. During the Civil War in Spain
from 1936 to 1939 the League once again joined forces with the ICRC
with the support of 41 national societies. In 1939 on the brink of the
Second World War, the League relocated its headquarters from Paris to
Geneva to take advantage of Swiss neutrality.
Peace Nobel Prize ceremony in 1963; From left to right: Crown Prince Harald of Norway, King Olav of Norway, ICRC president Leopold Boissier, League Chairman John A. MacAulay.
In 1952, the 1928 common statute of the movement was revised for the first time. Also, the period of decolonization
from 1960 to 1970 was marked by a huge jump in the number of recognized
national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies. By the end of the 1960s,
there were more than 100 societies around the world. On December 10,
1963, the Federation and the ICRC received the Nobel Peace Prize. In
1983, the League was renamed to the "League of Red Cross and Red
Crescent Societies" to reflect the growing number of national societies
operating under the Red Crescent symbol. Three years later, the seven
basic principles of the movement as adopted in 1965 were incorporated
into its statutes. The name of the League was changed again in 1991 to
its current official designation the "International Federation of Red
Cross and Red Crescent Societies". In 1997, the ICRC and the IFRC signed
the Seville Agreement
which further defined the responsibilities of both organizations within
the movement. In 2004, the IFRC began its largest mission to date after
the tsunami disaster in South Asia.
More than 40 national societies have worked with more than 22,000
volunteers to bring relief to the countless victims left without food
and shelter and endangered by the risk of epidemics.
Activities
Organization
Entry to the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum in Geneva.
Altogether, there are about 97 million people worldwide who serve
with the ICRC, the International Federation, and the National Societies,
the majority with the latter.
The 1965 International Conference in Vienna
adopted seven basic principles which should be shared by all parts of
the Movement, and they were added to the official statutes of the
Movement in 1986.
Fundamental principles
At the 20th International Conference in Neue Hofburg, Vienna,
from 2–9 October 1965, delegates "proclaimed" seven fundamental
principles which are shared by all components of the Movement, and they
were added to the official statutes of the Movement in 1986. The
durability and universal acceptance is a result of the process through
which they came into being in the form they have. Rather than an effort
to arrive at agreement, it was an attempt to answer the question of what
did they have in common, over the past 100 years, those operations and
organisational units that were successful? As a result, the Fundamental
Principles of the Red Cross and Red Crescent were not revealed, but found – through a deliberate and participative process of discovery.
That makes it even more important to note that the text that
appears under each "heading" is an integral part of the Principle in
question and not an interpretation that can vary with time and place.
Humanity
The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, born of a
desire to bring assistance without discrimination to the wounded on the
battlefield, endeavours, in its international and national capacity, to
prevent and alleviate human suffering wherever it may be found. Its
purpose is to protect life and health and to ensure respect for the
human being. It promotes mutual understanding, friendship, cooperation
and lasting peace amongst all peoples.
Impartiality
It makes no discrimination as to nationality, race, religious
beliefs, class or political opinions. It endeavours to relieve the
suffering of individuals, being guided solely by their needs, and to
give priority to the most urgent cases of distress.
Neutrality
In order to continue to enjoy the confidence of all, the Movement
may not take sides in hostilities or engage at any time in
controversies of a political, racial, religious or ideological nature.
Independence
The Movement is independent. The National Societies, while
auxiliaries in the humanitarian services of their governments and
subject to the laws of their respective countries, must always maintain
their autonomy so that they may be able at all times to act in
accordance with the principles of the Movement.
Voluntary Service
It is a voluntary relief movement not prompted in any manner by desire for gain.
Unity
There can be only one Red Cross or one Red Crescent Society in
any one country. It must be open to all. It must carry on its
humanitarian work throughout its territory.
Universality
The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, in which
all Societies have equal status and share equal responsibilities and
duties in helping each other, is worldwide.
Activities and organization of the International Conference and the Standing Commission
The International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, which
occurs once every four years, is the highest institutional body of the
Movement. It gathers delegations from all of the national societies as
well as from the ICRC, the IFRC and the signatory states to the Geneva
Conventions. In between the conferences, the Standing Commission of the Red Cross and Red Crescent acts as the supreme body and supervises implementation of and compliance with the resolutions of the conference.
In addition, the Standing Commission coordinates the cooperation
between the ICRC and the IFRC. It consists of two representatives from
the ICRC (including its president), two from the IFRC (including its
president), and five individuals who are elected by the International
Conference. The Standing Commission convenes every six months on
average. Moreover, a convention of the Council of Delegates of the
Movement takes place every two years in the course of the conferences of
the General Assembly of the International Federation. The Council of
Delegates plans and coordinates joint activities for the Movement.
Activities and organization
The mission of the ICRC and its responsibilities within the Movement
The emblem of the International Committee of the Red Cross (French: Comité international de la Croix-rouge).
The official mission of the ICRC as an impartial, neutral, and
independent organization is to stand for the protection of the life and
dignity of victims of international and internal armed conflicts.
According to the 1997 Seville Agreement, it is the "Lead Agency" of the
Movement in conflicts. The core tasks of the Committee, which are
derived from the Geneva Conventions and its own statutes, are the
following:
- to monitor compliance of warring parties with the Geneva Conventions
- to organize nursing and care for those who are wounded on the battlefield
- to supervise the treatment of prisoners of war
- to help with the search for missing persons in an armed conflict (tracing service)
- to organize protection and care for civil populations
- to arbitrate between warring parties in an armed conflict
Legal status and organization
The
ICRC is headquartered in the Swiss city of Geneva and has external
offices in about 80 countries. It has about 12,000 staff members
worldwide, about 800 of them working in its Geneva headquarters, 1,200
expatriates with about half of them serving as delegates managing its
international missions and the other half being specialists like
doctors, agronomists, engineers or interpreters, and about 10,000
members of individual national societies working on site.
According to Swiss law, the ICRC is defined as a private association. Contrary to popular belief, the ICRC is not a non-governmental organization
in the most common sense of the term, nor is it an international
organization. As it limits its members (a process called cooptation) to
Swiss nationals only, it does not have a policy of open and unrestricted
membership for individuals like other legally defined NGOs. The word
"international" in its name does not refer to its membership but to the
worldwide scope of its activities as defined by the Geneva Conventions.
The ICRC has special privileges and legal immunities in many countries,
based on national law in these countries or through agreements between
the Committee and respective national governments.
According to its statutes it consists of 15 to 25 Swiss-citizen
members, which it coopts for a period of four years. There is no limit
to the number of terms an individual member can have although a
three-quarters majority of all members is required for re-election after
the third term.
The leading organs of the ICRC are the Directorate and the
Assembly. The Directorate is the executive body of the Committee. It
consists of a general director and five directors in the areas of
"Operations", "Human Resources", "Resources and Operational Support",
"Communication", and "International Law and Cooperation within the
Movement". The members of the Directorate are appointed by the Assembly
to serve for four years. The Assembly, consisting of all of the members
of the Committee, convenes on a regular basis and is responsible for
defining aims, guidelines, and strategies and for supervising the
financial matters of the Committee. The president of the Assembly is
also the president of the Committee as a whole. Furthermore, the
Assembly elects a five-member Assembly Council which has the authority
to decide on behalf of the full Assembly in some matters. The Council is
also responsible for organizing the Assembly meetings and for
facilitating communication between the Assembly and the Directorate.
Due to Geneva's location in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, the ICRC usually acts under its French name Comité international de la Croix-Rouge
(CICR). The official symbol of the ICRC is the Red Cross on white
background with the words "COMITE INTERNATIONAL GENEVE" circling the
cross.
Funding and financial matters
The
2009 budget of the ICRC amounts to more than 1 billion Swiss francs.
Most of that money comes from the States, including Switzerland in its
capacity as the depositary state of the Geneva Conventions, from
national Red Cross societies, the signatory states of the Geneva
Conventions, and from international organizations like the European Union.
All payments to the ICRC are voluntary and are received as donations
based on two types of appeals issued by the Committee: an annual Headquarters Appeal to cover its internal costs and Emergency Appeals for its individual missions.
The ICRC is asking donors for more than 1.1 billion Swiss francs
to fund its work in 2010. Afghanistan is projected to become the ICRC's
biggest humanitarian operation (at 86 million Swiss francs, an 18%
increase over the initial 2009 budget), followed by Iraq (85 million
francs) and Sudan (76 million francs). The initial 2010 field budget for
medical activities of 132 million francs represents an increase of 12
million francs over 2009.
Activities and organization of the International Federation
Mission and responsibilities
Emblem of the IFRC
The IFRC coordinates cooperation between national Red Cross and Red
Crescent societies throughout the world and supports the foundation of
new national societies in countries where no official society exists. On
the international stage, the IFRC organizes and leads relief assistance
missions after emergencies such as natural disasters, manmade
disasters, epidemics, mass refugee flights, and other emergencies. As
per the 1997 Seville Agreement, the IFRC is the Lead Agency of the
Movement in any emergency situation which does not take place as part of
an armed conflict. The IFRC cooperates with the national societies of
those countries affected – each called the Operating National Society (ONS) – as well as the national societies of other countries willing to offer assistance – called Participating National Societies
(PNS). Among the 187 national societies admitted to the General
Assembly of the International Federation as full members or observers,
about 25–30 regularly work as PNS in other countries. The most active of
those are the American Red Cross, the British Red Cross, the German Red Cross, and the Red Cross societies of Sweden and Norway.
Another major mission of the IFRC which has gained attention in recent
years is its commitment to work towards a codified, worldwide ban on the
use of land mines and to bring medical, psychological, and social support for people injured by land mines.
The tasks of the IFRC can therefore be summarized as follows:
- to promote humanitarian principles and values
- to provide relief assistance in emergency situations of large magnitude, such as natural disasters
- to support the national societies with disaster preparedness through the education of voluntary members and the provision of equipment and relief supplies
- to support local health care projects
- to support the national societies with youth-related activities
Legal status and organization
The
IFRC has its headquarters in Geneva. It also runs five zone offices
(Africa, Americas, Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East-North Africa), 14
permanent regional offices and has about 350 delegates in more than 60
delegations around the world. The legal basis for the work of the IFRC
is its constitution. The executive body of the IFRC is a secretariat,
led by a secretary general. The secretariat is supported by five
divisions including "Programme Services", "Humanitarian values and
humanitarian diplomacy", "National Society and Knowledge Development"
and "Governance and Management Services".
The highest decision making body of the IFRC is its General
Assembly, which convenes every two years with delegates from all of the
national societies. Among other tasks, the General Assembly elects the
secretary general. Between the convening of General Assemblies, the
Governing Board is the leading body of the IFRC. It has the authority to
make decisions for the IFRC in a number of areas. The Governing Board
consists of the president and the vice presidents of the IFRC, the
chairpersons of the Finance and Youth Commissions, and twenty elected
representatives from national societies.
The symbol of the IFRC is the combination of the Red Cross (left)
and Red Crescent (right) on a white background surrounded by a red
rectangular frame.
Funding and financial matters
The
main parts of the budget of the IFRC are funded by contributions from
the national societies which are members of the IFRC and through
revenues from its investments. The exact amount of contributions from
each member society is established by the Finance Commission and
approved by the General Assembly. Any additional funding, especially for
unforeseen expenses for relief assistance missions, is raised by "appeals"
published by the IFRC and comes for voluntary donations by national
societies, governments, other organizations, corporations, and
individuals.
Internal national societies
Official recognition
An ambulance owned by the Mexican Red Cross
An Israeli stamp commemorating the 25th. anniversary of Magen David Adom, Date of issue 01.11.1955
National Red Cross and Red Crescent societies exist in nearly every
country in the world. Within their home country, they take on the duties
and responsibilities of a national relief society as defined by International Humanitarian Law.
Within the Movement, the ICRC is responsible for legally recognizing a
relief society as an official national Red Cross or Red Crescent
society. The exact rules for recognition are defined in the statutes of
the Movement. Article 4 of these statutes contains the "Conditions for recognition of National Societies."
- In order to be recognized in terms of Article 5, paragraph 2 b) as a National Society, the Society shall meet the following conditions:
- Be constituted on the territory of an independent State where the Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armed Forces in the Field is in force.
- Be the only National Red Cross and-or Red Crescent Society of the said State and be directed by a central body which shall alone be competent to represent it in its dealings with other components of the Movement.
- Be duly recognized by the legal government of its country on the basis of the Geneva Conventions and of the national legislation as a voluntary aid society, auxiliary to the public authorities in the humanitarian field.
- Have an autonomous status which allows it to operate in conformity with the Fundamental Principles of the Movement.
- Use the name and emblem of the Red Cross or Red Crescent in conformity with the Geneva Conventions.
- Be so organized as to be able to fulfill the tasks defined in its own statutes, including the preparation in peace time for its statutory tasks in case of armed conflict.
- Extend its activities to the entire territory of the State.
- Recruit its voluntary members and its staff without consideration of race, sex, class, religion or political opinions.
- Adhere to the present Statutes, share in the fellowship which unites the components of the Movement and co-operate with them.
- Respect the Fundamental Principles of the Movement and be guided in its work by the principles of international humanitarian law.
Once a National Society has been recognized by the ICRC as a
component of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement (the
Movement), it is in principle admitted to the International Federation
of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in accordance with the terms
defined in the Constitution and Rules of Procedure of the International
Federation.
There are today 190 National Societies recognized within the Movement and which are members of the International Federation.
The most recent National Societies to have been recognized within the Movement are the Maldives Red Crescent Society (9 November 2011), the Cyprus Red Cross Society, the South Sudan Red Cross Society (12 November 2013) and, the last, the Tuvalu Red Cross Society (on 1 March 2016).
Activities of national societies on a national and international stage
Despite
formal independence regarding its organizational structure and work,
each national society is still bound by the laws of its home country. In
many countries, national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies enjoy
exceptional privileges due to agreements with their governments or
specific "Red Cross Laws" granting full independence as required by the
International Movement. The duties and responsibilities of a national
society as defined by International Humanitarian Law and the statutes of
the Movement include humanitarian aid in armed conflicts and emergency
crises such as natural disasters through activities such as Restoring Family Links.
Depending on their respective human, technical, financial, and
organizational resources, many national societies take on additional
humanitarian tasks within their home countries such as blood donation services or acting as civilian Emergency Medical Service
(EMS) providers. The ICRC and the International Federation cooperate
with the national societies in their international missions, especially
with human, material, and financial resources and organizing on-site
logistics.
History of the emblems
Emblems in use
The Red Cross
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The flag of Switzerland is where the original Red Cross was derived from.
The Red Cross emblem was officially approved in Geneva in 1863.
The Red Cross flag is not to be confused with the Saint George's Cross which is on the flag of England, Barcelona, Georgia, Freiburg im Breisgau,
and several other places. In order to avoid this confusion the
protected symbol is sometimes referred to as the "Greek Red Cross" (now Hellenic Red Cross); that term is also used in United States
law to describe the Red Cross. The red cross of the Saint George cross
extends to the edge of the flag, whereas the red cross on the Red Cross
flag does not.
The Red Cross flag is the colour-switched version of the Flag of Switzerland.
In 1906, to put an end to the argument of the Ottoman Empire that the
flag took its roots from Christianity, it was decided to promote
officially the idea that the Red Cross flag had been formed by reversing
the federal colours of Switzerland, although no clear evidence of this origin had ever been found.
The Red Crescent
Flag of the Ottoman Empire. This is where the original Red Crescent was derived from.
The Red Crescent emblem was first used by ICRC volunteers during the armed conflict of 1876–8 between the Ottoman Empire and the Russian Empire.
The symbol was officially adopted in 1929, and so far 33 states in the
Muslim world have recognized it. In common with the official promotion
of the red cross symbol as a colour-reversal of the Swiss flag (rather
than a religious symbol), the red crescent is similarly presented as
being derived from a colour-reversal of the flag of the Ottoman Empire.
The Red Crystal
International emblem for Magen David Adom outside Israel
On 8 December 2005, in response to growing pressure to accommodate Magen David Adom
(MDA), Israel's national emergency medical, disaster, ambulance and
blood bank service, as a full member of the Red Cross and Red Crescent
movement, a new emblem (officially the Third Protocol Emblem, but more commonly known as the Red Crystal) was adopted by an amendment of the Geneva Conventions known as Protocol III.
Recognized emblems in disuse
The Red Lion and Sun
The Red Lion and Sun Society of Iran was established in 1922 and admitted to the Red Cross and Red Crescent movement in 1923. However, some report the symbol was introduced at Geneva in 1864
as a counter example to the crescent and cross used by two of Iran's
rivals, the Ottoman and the Russian empires. Although that claim is
inconsistent with the Red Crescent's history, that history also suggests
that the Red Lion and Sun, like the Red Crescent, may have been
conceived during the 1877–1878 war between Russia and Turkey.
Due to the emblem's association with the Iranian monarchy, the Islamic Republic of Iran
replaced the Red Lion and Sun with the Red Crescent in 1980, consistent
with two existing Red Cross and Red Crescent symbols. Although the Red
Lion and Sun has now fallen into disuse, Iran has in the past reserved
the right to take it up again at any time; the Geneva Conventions continue to recognize it as an official emblem, and that status was confirmed by Protocol III in 2005 even as it added the Red Crystal.
Unrecognized emblems
The Red Star of David (Magen David Adom)
A Magen David Adom worker in the Tel Aviv civil defense, 1939
For over 50 years, Israel requested the addition of a red Star of David,
arguing that since Christian and Muslim emblems were recognized, the
corresponding Jewish emblem should be as well. This emblem has been used
by Magen David Adom
(MDA), or Red Star of David, the national first-aid society of Israel
of 1930, but it is not recognized by the Geneva Conventions as a
protected symbol.
The first use of the ″Magen David Adom″ was during the Anglo Boer War
in South Africa (1899–1902) when it was used by the Ambulance Corps
founded by Ben Zion Aaron in Johannesburg as a first aid corps to assist
the Boer forces. Permission was given by President Paul Kruger of the
South African Republic for the Star of David to be used as its insignia,
rather than the conventional red cross.
The Red Cross and Red Crescent movement repeatedly rejected
Israel's request over the years, stating that the Red Cross and Red
Crescent emblems were not meant to represent Christianity and Islam but
were colour reversals of the Swiss and the Ottoman flags, and also that
if Jews (or another group) were to be given another emblem, there would
be no end to the number of religious or other groups claiming an emblem
for themselves. They reasoned that a proliferation of red symbols would
detract from the original intention of the Red Cross emblem, which was
to be a single emblem to mark vehicles and buildings protected on
humanitarian grounds.
Certain Arab nations, such as Syria, also protested against the
entry of MDA into the Red Cross movement, making consensus impossible
for a time.
However, from 2000 to 2006 the American Red Cross withheld its dues (a total of $42 million) to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) because of IFRC's refusal to admit MDA; this ultimately led to the creation of the Red Crystal emblem and the admission of MDA on June 22, 2006.
The Red Star of David is not recognized as a protected symbol
outside Israel; instead the MDA uses the Red Crystal emblem during
international operations in order to ensure protection. Depending on
the circumstances, it may place the Red Star of David inside the Red
Crystal, or use the Red Crystal alone.
1996 hostage crisis allegations
The Australian TV network ABC and the indigenous rights group Rettet die Naturvölker released a documentary called Blood on the Cross
in 1999. It alleged the involvement of the Red Cross with the British
and Indonesian military in a massacre in the Southern Highlands of Western New Guinea during the World Wildlife Fund's Mapenduma hostage crisis of May 1996, when Western and Indonesian activists were held hostage by separatists.
Following the broadcast of the documentary, the Red Cross
announced publicly that it would appoint an individual outside the
organization to investigate the allegations made in the film and any
responsibility on its part. Piotr Obuchowicz was appointed to
investigate the matter.
The report categorically states that the Red Cross personnel accused of
involvement were proven not to have been present; that a white
helicopter was probably used in a military operation, but the helicopter
was not a Red Cross helicopter, and must have been painted by one of
several military organizations operating in the region at the time.
Perhaps the Red Cross logo itself was also used, although no hard
evidence was found for this; that this was part of the military
operation to free the hostages, but was clearly intended to achieve
surprise by deceiving the local people into thinking that a Red Cross
helicopter was landing; and that the Red Cross should have responded
more quickly and thoroughly to investigate the allegations than it did.
