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International Committee of the Red Cross
Type Private humanitarian organization
Founded 1863
Location Geneva, Switzerland
Leaders Jakob Kellenberger, President
Angelo Gnaedinger, Director-General
Field Humanitarianism
Purpose Protection of war wounded, refugees, and prisoners.
Budget CHF 822.8 million (2004)[1]
146.9m for headquarters
675.9m for field operations
Employees 1,330 in field operations (2004)[2]
Website www.icrc.org

The International Committee of the Red Cross or ICRC is an international private humanitarian institution based in Geneva, Switzerland. The ICRC has a unique authority based on the international humanitarian law of the Geneva Conventions to protect the victims of international and internal armed conflicts. Such victims include war wounded, prisoners, refugees, civilians, and other non-combatants.

The ICRC is part of the International Red Cross Movement along with the Red Cross Federation and numerous national societies. It is the oldest and most honored organization within the Movement and one of the most widely recognized organizations in the world, having won three Nobel Peace Prizes, in 1917, 1944, and 1963. The history of the ICRC is closely intertwined with the Movement itself, so the history is covered together there[awkward--not sure what you mean].

Characteristics

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The original motto of the International Committee of the Red Cross was Inter Arma Caritas ("In War, Charity"). It has preserved this motto while other Red Cross organizations have adopted others [so was Inter Arma Caritas the original motto of all Red Cross organizations?]. 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.

Mission

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The official mission of the ICRC as an impartial, neutral, and independent organization is "to protect the lives and dignity of victims of war and internal violence and to provide them with assistance." It also directs and coordinates international relief and works to promote and strengthen humanitarian law and universal humanitarian principles.[3] The core tasks of the Committee, which are derived from the Geneva Conventions and its own statutes ([3]), 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

In 1965 the The ICRC drew up seven fundamental principles in 1965 that were adopted by the entire Red Cross Movement.[4] They are humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, volunteerism, unity, and universality. [5]

Original document of the first Geneva Convention, 1864.
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Like the Holy See and the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order (Knights Hospitaller), the ICRC is a rare example of a non-governmental sovereign entity—its activities are not regulated by the statutes of any nation (??). It is the only institution explicitly named under International Humanitarian Law (IHL) as a controlling authority [define or rephrase]. It was first recognized in 1864 when the First Geneva Convention designated it to care assigned it the role of caring for sick and wounded combatants caught in [would one say that combatants are 'caught in' a conflict? I think one would say that of non-combatants] armed conflict. Later, Conventions Three (1929) and Four (1949) named the ICRC again [what is the significance of 'naming' it?] and expanded its role to cover prisoners of war and civilians, respectively. The ICRC has expanded on from its grounding in international law legally-defined mission to undertake tasks that are not specifically mandated by law, such as visiting political prisoners outside of conflict situations and providing relief in to victims of natural disasters.

Contrary to popular belief, the The ICRC is not a non-governmental organization in the most common usual sense of the term, nor is it an international organization. As it limits its membership (a process called cooptation) to Swiss nationals only citizens, 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 Swiss law, the ICRC is defined as a private association.

Funding and financial matters

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The 2005 budget of the ICRC amounts to about 970 million Swiss francs [equivalent in Euros or $US ?] , of which 85% is used for field work and 15% for filed work :-) internal costs. [Make the next sentence the second para, and the remaining parts of this para the third para?] 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 total budget for 2005 consists of about 819.7 million Swiss Francs (85% of the total) for field work and 152.1 million Swiss Francs (15%) for internal costs. In 2005, the budget for field work increased by 8.6% and the internal budget by 1.5% compared to 2004, primarily due to above-average increases in the number and scope of its missions in Africa.

[This para first?]Most of [quantify] the ICRC's funding comes from Switzerland and the United States, with the other European states and the E.U. close behind [quantify]. Together with Australia, Canada, Japan, and New Zealand, they contribute about 80-85% of the ICRC's budget. About 3% comes from private gifts, and the rest comes from national Red Cross societies. [6]

Responsibilities within the Movement

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The ICRC is responsible for legally recognizing a relief society as an official national Red Cross or Red Crescent society and thus accepting it into the Red Cross Movement. The exact rules for recognition are defined in the statutes of the Movement. After recognition by the ICRC, a national society is admitted as a member to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies. The ICRC and the Federation cooperate with the individual national societies in their international missions, especially with human, material, and financial resources and organizing on-site logistics. According the 1997 Seville Agreement, the ICRC is the lead Red Cross agency in armed conflicts, while other organizations within the Movement take the lead in non-war situations. National societies will normally be given the lead in civil or internal conflicts especially when a conflict is happening within their own country.

Organization

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The ICRC is headquartered in the Swiss city of Geneva and has external offices in about 80 countries. Of its 2,000 professional [define] employees, roughly 800 work in its Geneva headquarters and 1,200 expatriates [makes it sound like they are all Swiss] work in the field. About half of the field workers serve as delegates managing ICRC international missions while the other half are specialists such as like doctors, agronomists, engineers or interpreters. About 10,000 members of individual national societies work on-site [in their own countries you mean?], bringing the total staff under the authority of the ICRC to roughly 12,000.

The organizational structure of the ICRC is not well understood by outsiders. This is partly because of organizational secrecy, but also because the structure itself is highly mutable and has been prone to change. The Assembly and Presidency are two long-lasting institutions, but the Assembly Council and Directorate were created in the last few decades. Decisions are often made in a collective way, so authority and power relationships are not set in stone. Today, the leading organs [sounds a bit Stalinist :-)] are the Directorate and the Assembly.

Directorate

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The Directorate is the executive body of the Committee. It attends to the daily management of the ICRC, whereas the Assembly sets policy. The Directorate consists of a Director-General 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 Director-General has assumed more personal responsibility in recent years, much like a CEO, whereas he the incumbent was formerly more of a first among equals at the Directorate. The current Director-General is nominally Angelo Gnaedinger, but Director of Operations Pierre Kraehenbuehl has assumed much of the responsibility since Gnaedinger became ill in 2004. [7]

Assembly

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The Assembly (also called 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 Assembly has a membership of a maximum of 25 |Swiss]] citizens. Members must speak the house language of French, but many also speak [[English or German as well. These Assembly members are for a period of four years, and there is no limit to the number of terms an individual member can serve. A three-quarters majority vote from 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, every Committee member was Genevan, Protestant, |white]], and male . The first woman, Renée-Marguerite Cramer, was co-opted in 1918. Since then, several women have attained the Vice Presidency, and the female proportion after the [[Cold War] has been about 15%. The first non-Genevans were admitted in 1923, and one Jew has served in the Assembly. [8]

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]], conflicting parties can be sure that someone from "the enemy" will be setting policy in Geneva. [9] The Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 showed that even Red Cross actors (in this case National Societies) can be so bound by influenced nationalism that they are unable to sustain neutral humanitarianism. [10]

Jakob Kellenberger, current president of the ICRC.

Assembly Council

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Furthermore, the Assembly elects a five-member Assembly Council that constitutes an especially active core of the Assembly. The Council meets at least ten times per year and 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. The Assembly Council normally includes the president, vice president and three elected members. Currently both Jacques Forster and Olivier Vodoz[11] are vice presidents,[12] so there are only two other elected members [sorry, I don't get this].

The President

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The Assembly also selects one individual to act as President of the ICRC. The president is both a member of the Assembly and leader of the ICRC, and he has always been included on the Council since its formation. The President automatically becomes a member of the aforementioned groups once he is appointed, but he does not necessarily come from within the ICRC organization. There is a strong faction within the Assmebly that wants to reach outside the organization to select a president form from the Swiss government or professional circles like such as the banking or medical fields.[13] In fact, the last three presidents were previously officials in the Swiss government. The president's influence and role is not well-defined, and changes depending upon the times and each president's personal style. Since 2000, the president of the ICRC has been Jakob Kellenberger, a reclusive man who rarely makes diplomatic appearances but who is skilled in personal negotiation and comfortable with the dynamics of the Assembly.[14]

The former presidents of the ICRC have been:

Staff

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French postcard celebrating the role of Red Cross nurses during the First World War, 1915.

As the ICRC has grown and become more directly involved in conflicts, it has seen in an increase in professional staff rather than volunteers over the years. The ICRC had only twelve employees in 1914 [15]; and 1,900 in the Second World War 1,900 employees complemented its 1,800 volunteers. [16] The number of paid staff dropped off after each war both wars, but has increased once again in the last few decades, averaging 500 field staff in the 1980s and over a thousand in the 1990s. Beginning in the 1970s, the ICRC became more systematic [meaning?]in training in order to develop a more professional staff. [17] The ICRC is an attractive career for university graduates especially in Switzerland,[18] but the workload as of an ICRC employee is demanding. 15% of the staff leaves each year and 75% of employees stay less than three years. [19] The ICRC staff is multi-national and averaged about 50% non-Swiss citizens in 2004.

Relationships within the Movement

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By virtue of its age and place in international humanitarian law, the ICRC is the lead agency in the Red Cross Movement, but it has weathered some power struggles within the Movement. The ICRC has come into conflict with the Federation and certain national societies at various times. The American Red Cross threatened to supplant the ICRC with its creation of the Federation as "a real international Red Cross" after the First World War.[20] Elements of the Swedish Red Cross desired to supplant the Swiss authority of the ICRC after WW2. [21] Over time the Swedish sentiments subsided, and the Federation grew to work more harmoniously with the ICRC after years of organizational discord.[22]. Currently, the Federation's Movement Cooperation division organizes interaction and cooperation with the ICRC.

In 1997, the ICRC and the Federation signed the Seville Agreement which further defined the responsibilities of both organizations within the mMovement. According to the Agreement, the Federation is the Lead Agency of the Movement in any emergency situation which does not take place as part of an armed conflict. True to form, the Federation began its largest mission to date after the tsunami disaster in South Asia in 2004.

Relationships within the World Order

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The Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in 1963 when the prize was jointly awarded to the ICRC and the Federation. From left to right: King Olav of Norway, ICRC President Leopold Boissier, League Chairman John A. MacAulay.
(Picture from: www.redcross.int)

The ICRC is one of the largest and most respected humanitarian and non-state actors in the international system. Its efforts have provided aid and protection to victims of armed struggle in numerous conflicts for over a century.

The ICRC prefers to engage states directly and privately to lobby for access to prisoners of war and improvement in their treatment. Its findings are not available to the general public but are shared only with the relevant government. This is in contrast to related organizations like such as Doctors Without Borders and Amnesty International who are more willing to expose abuses and apply public pressure to governments. The ICRC reasons that this approach allows it greater access and cooperation from governments in the long run.

When granted only partial access, the ICRC takes what it can get [informal phrasing?] and keeps discreetly lobbying for greater access. In the era of apartheid South Africa, it was granted access to convicted prisoners like such as Nelson Mandelaserving sentences, but not to those under interrogation or and awaiting trial. [23] After his release, Mandela publicly praised the Red Cross. [24]

Some governments use the ICRC as a tool to promote their own ends. The presence of respectable aid organizations can make weak regimes appear more legitimate. Fiona Terry [who is she?] contends that "this is particularly true of ICRC, whose mandate, reputation, and discretion imbue its presence with a particularly affirming quality." [25] Recognizing this power, the ICRC can pressure weak governments to change their behavior by threatening to withdraw. As mentioned above, Nelson Mandela acknowledged that the ICRC compelled better treatment of prisoners [26] and had leverage over his South African captors because "avoiding international condemnation was the authorities' main goal." [27]

References

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  1. ^ ICRC. 2005. ICRC 2004 Annual Report (Headquarters section). 35.
  2. ^ ICRC. 2005. ICRC 2004 Annual Report (Headquarters section). 32.
  3. ^ ICRC. The Mission.. 7 May 2006.
  4. ^ David P Forsythe, The Humanitarians: The International Committee of the Red Cross, (Cambridge, NY:Cambridge University Press, 2005), 161.
  5. ^ ICRC. 1 Jan 1995. The Fundamental Principles
  6. ^ Forsythe, The Humanitarians, 233.
  7. ^ Forsythe, The Humanitarians, 225.
  8. ^ Forsythe, The Humanitarians, 203-6.
  9. ^ Forsythe, The Humanitarians, 208.
  10. ^ Bugnion, La Protection, 1138-41.
  11. ^ ICRC. 9 Dec 2005. New ICRC vice-president.
  12. ^ ICRC. 1 Jan 2006. ICRC presidency.
  13. ^ Forsythe, The Humanitarians, 211.
  14. ^ Forsythe, The Humanitarians, 219.
  15. ^ Philippe Ryfman, La question humanitaire (Paris:Ellipses, 1999), 38.
  16. ^ Ryfman, La question humanitaire, 129.
  17. ^ Georges Willemin and Roger Heacock, The International Committee of the Red Cross, (Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1984).
  18. ^ "Le CICR manqué de bras," LM, 20 July 2002, 15
  19. ^ Forsythe, The Humanitarians, 231
  20. ^ Andre Durand, History of the International Committee of the Red Cross: From Sarajevo to Hiroshima, (Geneva:ICRC, 1984), 147.
  21. ^ Forsythe, The Humanitarians, 52.
  22. ^ Forsythe, The Humanitarians, 37
  23. ^ David P Forsythe, "Choices More Ethical Than Legal:The International Committee of the Red Cross and Human Rights," Ethics and International Affairs, 7 (1993): 139-140.
  24. ^ Nelson Mandela, Speech before the British Red Cross, London, 10 July 2003. [1]
  25. ^ Fiona Terry, Condemned to Repeat? The Paradox of Humanitarian Action, (London: Cornell University Press, 2002), 45.
  26. ^ Nelson Mandela, Interview on Larry King Live, 16 May 2000. [2]
  27. ^ Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom (London: Little, Brown, 1994), 396.

Bibliography

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Books

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  • David P. Forsythe: Humanitarian Politics: The International Committee of the Red Cross. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 1978, ISBN 0-80-181983-0
  • Henry Dunant: A Memory of Solferino. ICRC, Geneva 1986, ISBN 2-88-145006-7
  • Hans Haug: Humanity for all: the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. Henry Dunant Institute, Geneva in association with Paul Haupt Publishers, Bern 1993, ISBN 3-25-804719-7
  • Georges Willemin, Roger Heacock: International Organization and the Evolution of World Society. Volume 2: The International Committee of the Red Cross. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Boston 1984, ISBN 9-02-473064-3
  • Pierre Boissier: History of the International Committee of the Red Cross. Volume I: From Solferino to Tsushima. Henry Dunant Institute, Geneva 1985, ISBN 2-88-044012-2
  • André Durand: History of the International Committee of the Red Cross. Volume II: From Sarajevo to Hiroshima. Henry Dunant Institute, Geneva 1984, ISBN 2-88-044009-2
  • International Committee of the Red Cross: Handbook of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. 13th edition, ICRC, Geneva 1994, ISBN 2-88-145074-1
  • John F. Hutchinson: Champions of Charity: War and the Rise of the Red Cross. Westview Press, Boulder 1997, ISBN 0-81-333367-9
  • Caroline Moorehead: Dunant's dream: War, Switzerland and the history of the Red Cross. HarperCollins, London 1998, ISBN 0-00-255141-1 (Hardcover edition); HarperCollins, London 1999, ISBN 0-00-638883-3 (Paperback edition)
  • François Bugnion: The International Committee of the Red Cross and the protection of war victims. ICRC & Macmillan (ref. 0503), Geneva 2003, ISBN 0-33-374771-2
  • Angela Bennett: The Geneva Convention: The Hidden Origins of the Red Cross. Sutton Publishing, Gloucestershire 2005, ISBN 0-75-094147-2
  • David P. Forsythe: The Humanitarians. The International Committee of the Red Cross. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2005, ISBN 0-52-161281-0

Articles

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  • François Bugnion: The emblem of the Red Cross: a brief history. ICRC (ref. 0316), Geneva 1977
  • Jean-Philippe Lavoyer, Louis Maresca: The Role of the ICRC in the Development of International Humanitarian Law. In: International Negotiation. 4(3)/1999. Brill Academic Publishers, p. 503-527, ISSN 1382-340X
  • Neville Wylie: The Sound of Silence: The History of the International Committee of the Red Cross as Past and Present. In: Diplomacy and Statecraft. 13(4)/2002. Routledge/ Taylor & Francis, p. 186-204, ISSN 0959-2296
  • David P. Forsythe: "The International Committee of the Red Cross and International Humanitarian Law." In: Humanitäres Völkerrecht - Informationsschriften. The Journal of International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict. 2/2003, German Red Cross and Institute for International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict, p. 64-77, ISSN 0937-5414
  • François Bugnion: Towards a comprehensive Solution to the Question of the Emblem. Revised third edition. ICRC (ref. 0778), Geneva 2005
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Category:Lists of organizations Category:Red Cross Category:1864 establishments

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