International Committee of the Red Cross

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The International Committee of the Red Cross ( ICRC ) is a humanitarian agency based in Geneva, Switzerland, and three Nobel Prize winners. The signatories to the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their 1977 Protocols (Protocol I, Protocol II) and 2005 have granted the ICRC a mandate to protect victims of international and internal armed conflicts. The victims included wounded men, prisoners, refugees, civilians, and other non-combatants.

The ICRC is part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement along with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and 190 National Societies. It is the oldest and most respected organization in the movement and one of the most recognized organizations in the world, having won three Nobel Peace Prizes in 1917, 1944 and 1963.

Video International Committee of the Red Cross

Histori

Solferino, Henry Dunant, dan fondasi ICRC

Until the mid-19th century, there was no organized and well-established army nursing system for victims and there was no safe and protected institution to accommodate and care for the wounded on the battlefield. In June 1859, Swiss businessman Henry Dunant traveled to Italy to meet the French Emperor NapolÃÆ'Â on III for the purpose of discussing the difficulty of doing business in Algeria, which was then occupied by France. When he arrived in the small Italian town of Solferino on the night of June 24, he witnessed the Battle of Solferino, an engagement in the Second Italian War of Independence. In one day, about 40,000 soldiers on both sides were killed or injured in the field. Henry Dunant was struck by the aftermath of the terrible battles, the suffering of the wounded soldiers, and the lack of near-total medical and basic care. He completely abandoned the original intent of his journey and for several days he devoted himself to helping care and caring for the wounded. He managed to set up extraordinary levels of aid assistance by motivating locals to help without discrimination. Back at his home in Geneva, he decided to write a book entitled A Memory of Solferino which he published with his own money in 1862. He sent copies of the book to prominent political and military figures across Europe. In addition to writing a clear description of his experience at Solferino in 1859, he explicitly advocated the creation of a national volunteer aid organization to assist wounded army nurses in the case of war. In addition, he called for the development of an international agreement to ensure the neutrality and protection of the wounded on the battlefield as well as medical officers and field hospitals.

On February 9, 1863 in Geneva, Henry Dunant founded the "Five-Person Committee" (along with four other prominent figures from renowned Geneva families) as the Geneva Society's inquiry commission for Community Welfare. Their goal is to test the feasibility of Dunant's ideas and to organize an international conference on the possibility of its application. Members of this committee, in addition to Dunant himself, are Gustave Moynier, lawyer and chair of the Geneva Society for the Prosperity of Society; doctor Louis Appia, who has significant experience working as a field surgeon; Friends and colleagues Appia, ThÃÆ' Â © odore Maunoir, from the Geneva Health and Health Commission; and Guillaume-Henri Dufour, the most famous Swiss Army general. Eight days later, the five decided to rename the committee to "International Committee for Assistance to the Injured". In October (26-29) 1863, an 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 the national government, six delegates from other non-governmental organizations, seven non-official foreign delegates, and five members of the International Committee. The countries and empires represented by the official delegation are the Grand Duchy of Baden, the Kingdom of Bavaria, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom and Ireland, the Hanover Kingdom, the Great Duchy of Hesse, the Kingdom of Italy, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Austrian Empire, the Prussian Kingdom, the Russian Empire , The Kingdom of Saxony, the Kingdom of Sweden and Norway, and the Kingdom of Spain. Among the proposals written in the final resolution of the conference, adopted on 29 October 1863, were:

• The foundation of the national aid community for wounded soldiers;
• Neutrality and protection for injured soldiers;
• Use of volunteers for aid on the battlefield;
• Additional conference organizations to apply these concepts in legally binding international agreements; and
• The introduction of special protection symbols common to medical personnel in the field, the white bracelet with red cross, respects the history of Swiss neutrality and the Swiss organizers themselves by reversing the colors of the Swiss flag.

Just one year later, the Swiss government invited governments from all European countries, as well as the United States, Brazil, and Mexico, to attend official diplomatic conferences. Sixteen countries sent a total of twenty-six delegates to Geneva. On August 22, 1864, the conference adopted the first Geneva Convention "to Improve the Conditions of Injured in Soldiers on the Ground". Representatives from 12 states and kingdoms signed the convention:

The Convention contains ten articles, establishing for the first time legally binding rules guaranteeing neutrality and protection for wounded soldiers, field officers, and certain humanitarian agencies in armed conflict. Furthermore, the Convention defines two specific requirements for the recognition of national assistance societies by the International Committee:

• The national community should be recognized by its own national government as a grant community under the convention, and
• The national government of each country shall be a party to the Geneva Conventions.

Immediately after the establishment of the Geneva Conventions, the first national societies were founded in Belgium, Denmark, France, Oldenburg, Prussia, Spain, and WÃÆ'¼rttemberg. Also in 1864, Louis Appia and Charles van de Velde, a captain of the Dutch Army, became the first independent and neutral delegation to work under the symbol of the Red Cross in armed conflict. Three years later in 1867, the International Conference of National Aid Institutions for the First Nursery of War took place.

Also in 1867, Henry Dunant was forced to declare bankruptcy due to business failure in Algeria, in part because he had disregarded his business interests during his tireless activities for the International Committee. The controversy surrounding Dunant's business affairs and the resulting negative public opinion, combined with the ongoing conflict with Gustave Moynier, led to the expulsion of Dunant from his position as a member and secretary. He was charged with a fake bankruptcy and his arrest warrant was issued. Thus, he was forced to leave Geneva and never return to his hometown. In the following years, the national community was established in almost every country in Europe. The project resonated well with the increasing patriotic sentiment of the late nineteenth century, and the national community was often encouraged as a marker of national moral excellence. In 1876, the committee adopted the name "International Committee of the Red Cross" (ICRC), which remains its official designation today. Five years later, the American Red Cross was established through Clara Barton's efforts. More and more countries are signing the Geneva Conventions and are beginning to respect it in practice during armed conflict. In a relatively short time, the Red Cross gained momentum as a respected international movement, and the national community became increasingly popular as a place for voluntary work.

When the first Nobel Peace Prize was awarded in 1901, the Norwegian Nobel Committee voted to give it together to Henry Dunant and Father Faby, Passy, ​​a leading international peace leader. More important than the honor of the prize itself, the official congratulations of the International Committee of the Red Cross marked Henry Dunant's delayed rehabilitation and represented the award for his key role in the establishment of the Red Cross. Dunant died nine years later at the small Swiss health resort of Heiden. Just two months earlier, his long-standing enemy, Gustave Moynier, had also died, leaving a mark in the history of the Committee as the longest-ever President.

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, expanded the scope of the Geneva Convention for maritime wars. Shortly before the start of the First World War in 1914, 50 years after the founding of the ICRC and the adoption of the first Geneva Convention, there have been 45 national aid societies around the world. The movement has expanded beyond Europe and North America to Central and South America (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Mexico, Peru, El Salvador, Uruguay, Venezuela), Asia (Republic of China, Japan, Korea, Siam), and Africa South Africa).

World War I

With the outbreak of World War I, the ICRC found itself confronted with enormous challenges that could only be addressed by working closely with the national Red Cross community. 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 October 1914, shortly after the start of the war, the ICRC formed the International Captive Agency (POW), which had about 1,200 volunteer staff members by the end of 1914. By the end of the war, the Agency transferred about 20 million letters and messages, 1.9 million packages , and about 18 million Swiss francs in the form of money donations to POWs from all affected countries. Subsequently, due to the intervention of the Agency, some 200,000 prisoners were exchanged between the conflicting parties, released from detention and returned to their home country. The agency's organizational card index collected about 7 million records from 1914 to 1923, each card representing individual or missing persons. The card index led to the identification of approximately 2 million POWs and the ability to contact their families, as part of the Restoring Family Links effort of the organization. The full index is lent today from the ICRC to the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum in Geneva. The right to access the index is still very limited to the ICRC.

During the war, the ICRC monitored the compliance of the parties to the Geneva Conventions on revision of 1907 and passed complaints about violations to their respective countries. When chemical weapons were used in this war for the first time in history, the ICRC vigorously protested this new type of warfare. Even without the mandate of the Geneva Conventions, the ICRC tries to improve the suffering of civilians. In areas officially designated as "occupied territories," the ICRC can assist civilians under the "Historical Law and Habits of War" The Hague Convention of 1907. This Convention is also the legal basis for the work of the ICRC for prisoners of war. In addition to the work of the International Prisoner-of-War Agency as described above, this includes inspection visits to POW camps. A total of 524 camps across 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 POW camps. The pictures show the prisoners in daily activities such as the distribution of letters from home. The aim of the ICRC is to provide the families of prisoners with hope and comfort and to reduce their uncertainty about the fate of their loved ones. After the end of the war, the ICRC arranged for the return of some 420,000 prisoners to their home countries. In 1920, the repatriation task was left to the newly established League of Nations, which appointed Norwegian diplomat and scientist Fridtjof Nansen as "High Commissioner for the Repatriation of Prisoners of War". Its legal mandate was later extended to support and care for war refugees and displaced persons when its offices became the League of Refugees' "High Commissioner". Nansen, who invented the Nansen passport for a non-state refugee and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1922, appointed two delegates from the ICRC as his deputy.

A year before the end of the war, the ICRC received the 1917 Nobel Peace Prize for its remarkable war work. It was the Nobel Peace Prize given only in the period 1914-1918. In 1923, the Committee adopted a change in its policy on the election of new members. Until then, only citizens from the city of Geneva can serve on the Committee. This limitation was extended to include Swiss citizens. As a direct consequence of World War I, additional protocols for the Geneva Conventions were adopted in 1925 which prohibited the use of straining gas or toxic gases and biological agents as weapons. Four years later, the original Convention was revised and the second Geneva Convention "relative to Treatment of Prisoners of War" was established. The events of World War I and each of the ICRC's activities significantly enhanced the reputation and authority of the Committee among the international community and led to the expansion of competence.

In early 1934, the draft proposal for additional conventions for the protection of civilians during the armed conflict was adopted by the International Red Cross Conference. Unfortunately, most governments have little interest in implementing this convention, and are thus prevented from imposing prior to the start of World War II.

Chaco War

In the Interwar period, Bolivia and Paraguay were at loggerheads over Gran Chaco - a desert region between the two countries. The dispute escalated into a full-scale conflict in 1932. During the war, the ICRC visited 18,000 Bolivian prisoners and 2,500 Paraguayan prisoners. With the help of the ICRC, the two countries made improvements to the conditions of the detainees.

World War II

The most reliable main source of the role of the Red Cross during World War II was the three-volume "International Committee of the Red Cross report on its activities during the second world war (1 September 1939 - 30 June 1947)" written by the International Committee of the Red Cross itself. Reports can be read online.

The legal basis of ICRC work during World War II was the Geneva Conventions in their 1929 revision. Committee activities similar to those occurring during World War I: visiting and monitoring POW camps, organizing emergency aid for civilians, and arranging exchanges of messages on detainees 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 Prisoner-of-War ( Zentralauskunftsstelle fÃÆ'¼r Kriegsgefangene ) has a staff of 3,000, a prison index tracking card containing 45 million cards, and 120 million messages exchanged by the Agency. One of the main obstacles is that the Nazi-controlled German Red Cross refuses to cooperate with Geneva law including gross violations such as the deportation of Jews from Germany and mass murders committed in concentration camps run by the German government. In addition, the other two major parties to the conflict, the Soviet Union and Japan, did not become members of the 1929 Geneva Convention and were not legally required to follow the convention rules.

During the war, the ICRC failed to get agreement with Nazi Germany about the treatment of prisoners in the concentration camps, and ultimately ignored the pressure to avoid disrupting its work with POW. The ICRC has also failed to develop a response to reliable information about the mass extermination and mass extermination camps of European Jews. This is still considered the greatest failure of the ICRC in its history. After November 1943, the ICRC obtained permission to send packets to concentration camp prisoners with known names and locations. Because the admission notice for this package is often signed by other inmates, the ICRC successfully registered the identities of some 105,000 prisoners in the concentration camp and dispatched about 1.1 million packages, mainly to Dachau, Buchenwald, Ravensbrück, and Sachsenhausen camps..

The Swiss historian Jean-Claude Favez, who conducted an 8-year review of the Red Cross record, said that although the Red Cross knew in November 1942 about the Nazi extermination plan for Jews - and even discussed it with US officials - the group did nothing to inform the public , keeping silence even in the eyes of the appeals by Jewish groups.

Since the Red Cross is based in Geneva and largely funded by the Swiss government, it is very sensitive to the attitude and policy of war in Switzerland. In October 1942, the Swiss government and the Red Cross members' council vetoed a proposal by some Red Cross council members to condemn the persecution of civilians by the Nazis. For the remainder of the war, the Red Cross took its cue from Switzerland in avoiding opposition or confrontation with the Nazis.

On March 12, 1945, ICRC President Jacob Burckhardt received a message from SS General Ernst Kaltenbrunner receiving an ICRC request to allow delegates to visit concentration camps. This agreement is bound by the requirement that these delegates should stay in the camp until the end of the war. Ten delegates, among them Louis Haefliger (Camp Mauthausen), Paul Dunant (Theresienstadt Camp) and Victor Maurer (Camp Dachau), accepted the assignment and visited the camp. Louis Haefliger prevented the forced expulsion or blast of Mauthausen-Gusen by warning American troops, thus saving the lives of some 60,000 inmates. His actions were condemned by the ICRC because they were perceived as acting on their own authority and risking the neutrality of the ICRC. Only in 1990 was his reputation finally rehabilitated by ICRC President Cornelio Sommaruga.

In 1944, the ICRC received the second Nobel Peace Prize. As in World War I, he received the only Peace Prize awarded during the main period of the war, 1939 to 1945. At the end of the war, the ICRC worked with the national Red Cross community to organize relief aid to the most affected countries. In 1948, the Committee published a report reviewing its war activities from September 1, 1939 to June 30, 1947. Since January 1996, the ICRC's archive for this period has been open to academic and public research.

After World War II

On August 12, 1949, further revisions to two existing Geneva Conventions were adopted. An additional convention "for Amelioration of the Conditions of Injured, Sick and Pounded Members of the Armed Forces at Sea", now called the Second Geneva Convention, is brought under the umbrella of the Geneva Conventions as the successor to the 1907 Hague Convention. 1929 The Geneva Conventions "relative to Treatment of Prisoner of War "was probably the second Geneva Convention from a historical point of view (since it was actually formulated in Geneva), but after 1949 it was called the third Convention because it came later. chronologically from the Hague Convention. Reacting to the experience of World War II, the Fourth Geneva Convention, a new Convention "which deals with the Protection of Civilian Persons in the War," was established. Also, the supplementary protocol of 8 June 1977 was intended to make the convention applicable to internal conflicts such as civil war. Today, four of their additional conventions and protocols contain more than 600 articles, a remarkable expansion when compared to only 10 articles in the first 1864 convention.

In the centenary celebration of 1963, the ICRC, together with the Red Cross Community League, received its third Nobel Peace Prize. Since 1993, non-Swiss individuals have been allowed to serve as delegates to the Committee abroad, a task previously restricted to Swiss citizens. Indeed, since then, the share of staff without Swiss citizenship has risen to about 35%.

On 16 October 1990, the UN General Assembly decided to grant ICRC observer status to the assembly sessions and sub-committee meetings, the first observer's status to private organizations. The resolution was jointly proposed by 138 member states and was introduced by Italian ambassador Vieri Traxler to commemorate the origin of the organization in the Battle of Solferino. Agreement with the Swiss government was signed on March 19, 1993, affirming the long-standing policy of the Committee's full independence from possible interference by Switzerland. This Agreement protects the full sanctity of all ICRC properties in Switzerland including its headquarters and archives, grants members and immunities to the staff, exempts the ICRC from all taxes and fees, guarantees the transfer of goods, services and money protected and duty-free, provides ICRC with access rights secure communications at the same level as foreign embassies, and simplify the committee's journey in and out of Switzerland.

The ICRC continued its activities throughout the 1990s. This broke the silence of the indigenous media while denouncing the Rwandan Genocide in 1994. He fought to prevent crimes committed in and around Srebrenica in 1995 but admitted, "We must recognize that despite our efforts to help thousands of civilians forcibly expelled from the city. despite the dedication of our colleagues in place, the impact of the ICRC on the unfolding of the tragedy is very limited. "It again became public once again in 2007 to condemn" major human rights violations "by the Burmese military government including forced labor, starvation and assassinations men, women, and children.

Fatalities

At the end of the Cold War, ICRC work really 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 indicate a lack of respect for the rules of the Geneva Conventions and their protective symbols. Among the delegates killed were:

• Frà © monica Maurice. He died on May 19, 1992 at the age of 39, a day after the transport of the Red Cross he escorted was attacked in the former Yugoslav town of Sarajevo.
• Fernanda Calado (Spain), Ingeborg Foss (Norway), Nancy Malloy (Canada), Gunnhild Myklebust (Norway), Sheryl Thayer (New Zealand), and Hans Elkerbout (The Netherlands). They were shot at close range while sleeping in the early hours of December 17, 1996 at the ICRC hospital in Chechnya town Nowije Atagi near Grozny. Their killers have never been caught and there is no clear motive for the murder.
• Rita Fox (Switzerland), VÃÆ'Ã… © ronique Saro (Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly Zaire), Julio Delgado (Colombia), Unen Ufoirworth (DR Congo), Bobo Aduwe (DR Congo), and Jean Molokabonge (DR Congo). On April 26, 2001, they were on their way with two cars on a relief mission in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo when they were hit by a deadly shot from an unknown assailant.
• Ricardo Munguia (El Salvador). He worked as a water engineer in Afghanistan and traveled with local colleagues on March 27, 2003 when their car was stopped by unknown gunmen. He was killed with an execution style at close range while his colleagues were allowed to escape. He is 39 years old. The killing prompted the ICRC to temporarily suspend operations across Afghanistan.
• Vatche Arslanian (Canada). Since 2001, he has worked as a logistics coordinator for the ICRC mission in Iraq. He died while he traveled through Baghdad along with members of the Iraqi Red Crescent. Their car accidentally came to a fighting battle in the city.
• Nadisha Yasassri Ranmuthu (Sri Lanka). He was killed by an unknown assailant on July 22, 2003, when his car was fired near the town of Hilla south of Baghdad.
• Emmerich Pregetter (Austria). He was an ICRC Logistics Specialist who was killed by a swarm of bees on August 11, 2008. Emmerich participated in a field trip with the ICRC Water and Habitat team at a convoy delivering construction materials for the reconstruction of a rural surgical health clinic in Jebel Marra area of ​​West Darfur, Sudan.

The Holocaust

By taking part in a 1995 ceremony to commemorate the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp, the ICRC President, Cornelio Sommaruga, sought to show that the organization was fully aware of the Holocaust's gravity and the need to retain memories of it. life, thus preventing its repetition. He paid tribute to all those who had suffered or lost their lives during the war and openly regretted the past mistakes and shortcomings of the Red Cross in connection with the victims of the concentration camp.

In 2002 an ICRC official described several lessons the organization had learned from the failure:

• from a legal point of view, work leading to the adoption of the Geneva Convention relative to the protection of civilians in times of war;
• from an ethical point of view, the adoption of the Declaration of Fundamental Principles of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, built on the work of Max Huber and Jean Pictet the honorable, to prevent more violations as they did in motion after Hitler rose to power power in 1933;
• at the political level, the ICRC's relationship with Switzerland was redesigned to ensure its independence;
• with a view to preserving living memories, the ICRC accepted, in 1955, to take over the direction of the International Search Service in which records from the concentration camp were retained;
Finally, to establish the historical facts of the case, the ICRC invited Jean-Claude Favez to conduct an independent inquiry into his activities on behalf of victims of the Nazi persecution, and grant him unlimited access to his archives relating to this. period; Out of concern for transparency, the ICRC has also decided to grant other historians access to its archives for more than 50 years; After passing Favez's conclusions, the ICRC acknowledged its past failures and expressed regret in this regard.

In an official statement made on January 27, 2005, the 60th anniversary of Auschwitz's release, the ICRC states:

Auschwitz was also the biggest failure in the history of the ICRC, exacerbated by a lack of firmness in taking steps to help victims of the Nazi persecution. This failure will remain part of the ICRC's memory, like the bold actions of every ICRC delegate at the time.

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Characteristics

The original motto of the International Committee of the Red Cross is Inter Arma Caritas ("Amidst War, Charity"). It has retained this motto while other Red Cross organizations have adopted others. Due to the Geneva location in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, the ICRC is also known by the earliest French name ComitÃÆ' Â © international de la Croix-Rouge (CICR). However, the ICRC has three official languages ​​(English, French and Spanish). The ICRC's official symbol is the Red Cross with a white background (as opposed to the Swiss flag) with the words "COMITE INTERNATIONAL GENEVE" that surrounds the cross.

Under the Geneva Conventions, red crosses, red crescent moon and red crystal symbols provide protection for military medical services and aid workers in armed conflict and will be placed on humanitarian and medical vehicles and buildings. The original emblem that has a red cross on a white background is the opposite of a neutral Swiss flag. It was later complemented by two others who were Red Crescent, and Red Crystals. The Red Crescent was adopted by the Ottoman Empire during the Russian-Turkish war and the Red Crystal by the government in 2005, as an additional symbol with no national, political or religious connotations.

Missions

The official mission statement says that: "The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is an impartial, neutral and independent organization whose independent humanitarian mission is to protect the lives and dignity of victims of war and internal violence and to provide them with assistance." It also undertakes and coordinates international assistance and works to promote and strengthen international humanitarian law and universal humanitarian principles. The core tasks of the Committee, derived from the Geneva Conventions and its own laws are:

• to monitor compliance of parties to the Geneva Conventions
• to organize nursing and care for those injured on the battlefield
• to oversee the treatment of prisoners of war and make secret interventions with the authorities withholding
• to help search missing persons in armed conflict (tracking service)
• to organize protection and care for civilian populations
• acts as a neutral intermediary between the conflicting parties

The ICRC established seven basic principles in 1965 adopted by the entire Red Cross Movement. They are humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, volunteerism, unity, and universality.

Legal status

The ICRC is the only institution explicitly mentioned in international humanitarian law as a controlling authority. The ICRC's legal mandate stems from four Geneva Conventions of 1949, as well as its own Statute. The ICRC also performs tasks not specifically mandated by law, such as visiting political prisoners outside the conflict and providing assistance in natural disasters.

The ICRC is a privately-registered Swiss association that has enjoyed varying degrees of privilege and immunity in Switzerland for many years. On March 19, 1993, the legal basis for this special treatment was created by an official agreement between the Swiss government and the ICRC. This Agreement protects the full sanctity of all ICRC property in Switzerland including its headquarters and archives, grants members and immunity to staff, exempts the ICRC from all taxes and fees, transfers of goods, services and money protected and duty-free, provides ICRC with access rights secure communications at the same level as foreign embassies, and simplify the committee's journey in and out of Switzerland. On the other hand, Switzerland does not recognize the passport issued by the ICRC.

Contrary to popular belief, the ICRC is not a sovereign entity like the sovereign Military Order of Malta nor is it an international organization, either non-governmental or governmental. The ICRC limits its membership to Swiss citizens only, and also unlike most NGOs does not have an open and unlimited membership policy for individuals because the new members are chosen by the Committee itself (a process called cooptation). However, since the early 1990s, the ICRC employs people from all over the world to serve on field missions and at Headquarters. In 2007, almost half of the ICRC staff were not Swiss. The ICRC has the privilege and immunity in many countries, under national law in these countries, on the basis of an agreement between the ICRC and their respective governments, or, in some cases, by international jurisprudence (such as the right of the ICRC delegation not to testify at front of the international court).

Legal Basis

The ICRC operations are generally based on international humanitarian law, consisting mainly of the four Geneva Conventions of 1949, their two Additional Protocols in 1977 and Protocol III in 2005, the Statute of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, and the resolution of the International Conference of the Red Cross and the Moon Red Crescent.

International humanitarian law was established under the Geneva convention, first signed in 1864 by 16 countries. The First Geneva Convention of 1949 included protection for injured and sick armed conflict on land. The Second Geneva Convention calls for protection and care for the wounded, sick and stranded armed conflict at sea. The Third Geneva Convention concerns the treatment of prisoners of war. The Fourth Geneva Convention concerns the protection of civilians during the war. In addition, there are many more customary international laws that apply when necessary.

Funding and finance issues

The 2010 budget of the ICRC amounts to about 1156 million Swiss francs. All payments to the ICRC are voluntary and are accepted as a contribution based on two types of appeals issued by the Committee: an annual Headquarters to cover their internal expenses and Emergency Calls for their individual missions. The total budget for 2009 consists of about 996.9 million Swiss Francs (85% of total) for field work and 168.6 million Swiss Francs (15%) for internal costs. In 2009, the budget for field work increased by 6.9% and internal budgets by 4.4% compared to 2008, primarily due to an above average increase in the number and scope of its mission in Africa.

Most of the ICRC funds come from Switzerland and the United States, with other European countries and the EU closing behind. Together with Australia, Canada, Japan and New Zealand, they contribute about 80-85% of the ICRC budget. About 3% comes from private gifts, and the rest comes from national Red Cross associations.

Responsibility in motion

The ICRC is responsible for legally acknowledging the relief community as an official community of the national Red Cross or Red Crescent and thereby accepting it into the movement. The exact rules for recognition are defined in the statutes of movement. Following recognition by the ICRC, the national community is recognized as a member of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (Federation or IFRC). The ICRC and the Federation work with each national community on their international missions, especially with human, material, and financial resources and organize on-site logistics. According to the Sevilla Agreement of 1997, the ICRC is the main Red Cross institution in conflict while other organizations in the movement are leading the way in non-war situations. The national community will be given leadership especially when conflicts are taking place in their own country.

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Organization

The ICRC is headquartered in the Swiss city of Geneva and has an external office called Delegation in about eighty countries. Each delegate is under the responsibility of a Head of the delegation who is the official representative of the ICRC in that country. Of its 2,000 professional employees, about 800 work in Geneva headquarters and 1,200 expatriates working in the field. About half of field workers serve as delegates who manage ICRC operations, while the other half are specialists such as doctors, agronomists, engineers, or interpreters. In the delegation, the international staff is assisted by approximately 13,000 national employees, bringing the number of staff under the ICRC authority to about 15,000. Delegates also often work closely with the National Red Cross Society of the countries in which they are located, and thus may summon National Red Cross volunteers to assist in some ICRC operations.

The organizational structure of the ICRC is not well understood by outsiders. This is partly due to organizational secrecy, but also because the structure itself has changed frequently. The Assembly and Presidency are two long standing institutions, but the House of Representatives and the Directorate were formed only in the later part of the 20th century. Decisions are often made in a collective way, so authority and power relations are not set in stone. Today, the leading organ is the Directorate and Assembly.

Directorate

The Directorate is the executive body of the ICRC. It follows the ICRC's daily management, while the Assembly sets policy. The Directorate comprises the Director General and five directors in the areas of "Operations", "Human Resources", "Finance and Logistics Resources", "Communication and Information Management", and "Law and International Cooperation in Movement". Members of the Directorate are appointed by the Assembly to serve for four years. The Director-General has assumed personal responsibility in recent years, such as the CEO, where he was previously more than one among the equivalents in the Directorate.

Assembly

The Assembly (also called the Committee) convenes regularly and is responsible for determining the objectives, guidelines and strategies and to oversee the Committee's financial matters. The Assembly has a membership of a maximum of twenty-five Swiss citizens. Members should speak the French home language, but many also speak English and German as well. Members of this Assembly are co-opted for a period of four years, and there is no limit to the number of terms that individual members can serve. Three-quarters majority vote of all members is required for re-election after the third term, which acts as a motivation for members to remain active and productive.

In the early years, each member of the Committee was Genevan, Protestant, white, and male. The first woman, RenÃÆ' Â © e-Marguerite Cramer, was co-opted in 1918. Since then, several women have reached the Vice President, and the proportion of women after the Cold War reaches about 15%. The first non-Genevan people were accepted in 1923, and a Jew has served in the Assembly.

While the rest of the Red Cross Movement may be multi-national, the Committee believes that its mono-national nature is an asset because the nationality in question is Swiss. Thanks to permanent Swiss neutrality, parties to the conflict can be sure that no one from "the enemy" will set policy in Geneva. The Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 shows that even Red Cross actors (in this case the National Society) can be so bound by nationalism that they can not maintain a neutral humanity.

Assembly

In addition, the Assembly elects an Assembly Council of five members which is the active core of the Assembly. The Council meets at least ten times per year and has the authority to decide representing the full Assembly in some respects. The Council is also responsible for organizing Assembly meetings and for facilitating communication between the Assembly and the Directorate. The Council of Assembly usually includes the President, two Vice Presidents and two elected members. While one Vice-President is elected for a term of four years, the other is permanently appointed, his term ends with a pension from the vice president or from the Committee. Currently Olivier Vodoz and Christine Beerli are Vice Presidents.

President

The Assembly also elected, for a period of four years, an individual to act as President of the ICRC. The President is a member of the Assembly and leader of the ICRC, and has always been included in the Council since its establishment. The President automatically becomes a member of the Council and the Assembly, but does not always come from within the ICRC. There is a strong faction in the Assembly who wishes to reach outside the organization to elect the President of the Swiss government or professional circles (such as banking or medicine). In fact, the four most recent Presidents are all previous officials to the Swiss government. The influence and role of the President is not well-defined, and changes depending on the time and personal style of each President.

From 2000 to 2012, the President of the ICRC was Jakob Kellenberger, a closed man who rarely performed diplomatically, but was quite skilled in private negotiations and comfortable with the dynamics of the Assembly. Since July 2012, the President is Peter Maurer, a Swiss citizen who is a former Foreign Secretary. He was appointed by the Assembly for a four-year renewable term.

The President of ICRC has:

Staff

As the ICRC has grown and become more directly involved in the conflict, the ICRC has seen an increase in professional staff over the years. The ICRC had only twelve employees in 1914 and 1900 in the Second World War completing its 1,800 volunteers. The number of paid staff dropped after both wars, but has increased once again in recent decades, averaging 500 field staff in the 1980s and over a thousand in the 1990s. Beginning in the 1970s, the ICRC became more systematic in training to develop more professional staff. The ICRC offers an exciting career for university graduates, especially in Switzerland, but the workload of the ICRC employees is very heavy. 15% of staff leave each year and 75% of employees stay less than three years. The ICRC staff are multi-national and average about 50% of non-Swiss citizens in 2004. The ICRC's international staff are assisted in their work by some 13,000 national employees employed in the countries where the delegation is based.

Worldwide ICRC 2013

The ICRC operates in over 80 countries with a total of 11,000 people employed worldwide. The extensive network of missions and delegations of the ICRC can liberate countries affected by armed conflict and other sources of violence. In 2013, the top ten operations in the world are Pakistan, Mali/Niger, Afghanistan, Yemen, Iraq, Colombia, Israel, Somalia, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Sudan.

In 2011, with support from the Red Cross Community DRC, the ICRC returned to their families in RDC 838 without children including more than 390 former child soldiers, 34 of whom were already in neighboring countries.

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Relationship in motion

Based on the age and position especially under international humanitarian law, the ICRC is a key institution in the Red Cross Movement, but has passed several power struggles within the movement. The ICRC has been in conflict with the Federation and certain national societies at various times. The American Red Cross threatened to replace the ICRC with the establishment of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies as the "real International Red Cross" after the First World War. Elements of the Swedish Red Cross want to replace the Swiss authorities of the ICRC after World War II. Over time the Swedish sentiment subsided, and IFRC grew to work more harmoniously with the ICRC after years of organizational disputes. Currently, the IFRC Movement Cooperation division organizes interaction and cooperation with the ICRC.

In 1997, the ICRC and IFRC signed the Sevilla Agreement which further defined the responsibilities of both organizations in the movement. According to the agreement, the Federation is the main body of the movement in emergency situations that did not occur as part of an armed conflict.

Magen David Adom Reception

From its founding in 1930 to 2006, the Magen organization David Adom, Israel's equivalent to the Red Cross, was not accepted as part of the Federation, as the Star of David, which the ICRC refused to recognize as an acceptable symbol. This means that although an Arab ambulance will be protected by the ICRC, an Israeli ambulance will not. In May 2000, Bernadine Healy, President of the American Red Cross, wrote: "The proliferation feared by the international committee is a miserable fig leaf symbol, used for decades as an excuse to exclude David Adom - Shield (or Star) David." protest against discrimination considered anti-Israel by the ICRC, ARC withdrew its financial support. In 2005, at a meeting of member states of the Geneva convention, the ICRC adopted the new Red Crystal. Magen David Adom then concentrated the Star of David sign in the newly received mark, and in 2006 was accepted as a full member. Yonatan Yagodovsky, director of the MDA fund raising department, said in an article published in October 2011 that "MDA will continue to use the emblem and logo, and no one has ever asked us to release it."

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International relations

The ICRC prefers to involve the state directly and rely on secret and low negotiations to lobby for access to prisoners of war and improvements in their treatment. The findings are not available to the general public but only shared with the relevant government. This is in contrast to related organizations such as Doctors Without Borders and Amnesty International who are more willing to disclose violations and apply public pressure to the government. The ICRC reason that this approach allows greater access and cooperation from the government in the long term.

When given only partial access, the ICRC takes what it can get and continues to lobby secretly for greater access. In South Africa's apartheid era, granted access to detainees like Nelson Mandela was serving a sentence, but not to those who were interrogated and awaiting trial. After his release, Mandela publicly praised the Red Cross.

Some governments use the ICRC as a tool to promote their own goals. The presence of an esteemed relief organization may make the weaker regime appear more legitimate. Fiona Terry argues that "this is especially true for the ICRC, whose mandate, reputation, and wisdom inspire its presence with a very resounding quality." Recognizing this power, the ICRC can pressure weak governments to change their behavior by threatening to withdraw. As mentioned above, Nelson Mandela acknowledges that the ICRC encourages better treatment of detainees and has influence over its kidnappers in South Africa because "avoiding international condemnation is the government's primary objective."

In a controversial move, three officials from the Hamas Palestinian political movement, which has been established by many governments as terrorist organizations, have been living in the office of the International Red Cross in Jerusalem. Israel believes that these three officials have a role in the 2006 abduction of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, and have issued deportation orders for them. Red Cross spokeswoman Cecilia Goin, speaking to CBN News, said that hosting Hamas officials is in line with the organization's humanitarian mission. Israel arrested two Hamas members for conducting "Hamas activities inside Jerusalem," police said.

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References

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Bibliography

Books

Articles

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External links

• International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
• War rules (briefly) - vidÃÆ' Â © o
• Relics Dr. Cornelio Sommaruga, President of the ICRC from 1987-1999, contributed four hours of high-definition audiovisual life story interviews to the Legacy. The ICRC audiovisual library keeps a copy of this interview.
• Worked by the International Committee of the Red Cross on the Gutenberg Project
• Works by or about the International Committee of the Red Cross on the Internet Archive

Source of the article : Wikipedia