MOSCOW, October 29 (RIA Novosti) — October 29 marks the 151 anniversary of the Geneva International Conference — the founding Conference of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), an independent organization that provides humanitarian aid to people affected by conflicts and armed violence, and spreads knowledge about the laws that protect people victimized by war.
The ICRC was founded on an initiative of Swiss citizen Henri Dunant (1828-1910), who in 1859, following a battle during the Franco-Austrian war near the village of Solferino, Italy found himself on a battlefield, where thousands of wounded French, Austrian and Italian troops were left without proper medical aid.
Dunant was shocked that neither the locals, nor the French army were able to provide first aid to most of the wounded. He spent several days in the nearby town of Castiglione, Italy, tending to wounded soldiers with the help of locals. Back in Geneva, Dunant started thinking about creating a voluntary charitable organization, that would provide aid to the wounded in wars and armed conflicts. He turned to European governments with a request to develop and legally formulate key international agreements, governing the future organization's practical work.
Later, the language of these agreements was used in the first Geneva Convention adopted in 1864, which proclaimed the rules for protecting wounded soldiers and nurses, and calling upon European countries to create charities.
The Geneva charity, The Geneva Union to Maintain the Public Good, studied Dunant's statement and formed a committee to address the practical implementation of his recommendations. This body was composed of five members and became known as the ICRC.
The first ICRC meeting was held on February 17, 1863. It was then decided that the Red Cross would hold neutral status, which was supposed to ensure its impartial and effective work.
In under a year, there were 10 such societies founded in Germany, Denmark, Spain, Belgium, Prussia and Italy.
The Danish-Prussian War (1864) was the first armed conflict monitored by the Red Cross.
Later on, the committee's delegates tended to wounded soldiers in the Russian-Turkish War (1877-1878), Serbo-Bulgarian War (1885-1886) and Balkan War (1912-1913). During World War I, the committee tried unsuccessfully to get the conflicting parties to abandon the use of chemical weapons. The ICRC's activities during World War II were further complicated because the Nazis did not recognize many international agreements and assistance to the civilian population was not yet enshrined on an international level.
The signing in 1949 of the Geneva Conventions for the Protection of War Victims expanded the scope of the Red Cross to include aid to civilians, prisoners of war and detainees.
The ICRC is a private organization, operating under the Swiss law. It is independent in matters of governance and decision-making. The committee consists of 25 co-opted members, each of whom is a Swiss citizen. In its work, the ICRC adheres to the fundamental principles of the movement: neutrality, impartiality and independence.
The ICRC has a permanent international mandate for its activities, based on the Geneva Convention (1949). The ICRC is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.
The ICRC, national Red Cross or Red Crescent societies and their International Federation form the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.
During armed conflicts, the ICRC acts as a coordinator.
The annual budget of the ICRC has been about 1 billion Swiss francs in recent years.
The committee is funded by the government, regional organizations, national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies, the municipal authorities, as well as the private sector and the public.
Currently, over 1,400 employees work at local ICRC offices worldwide. About 11,000 are locals. Their activities are coordinated and supported by about 800 staff based at the Geneva headquarters.
The management bodies of the ICRC are the Assembly, Assembly Council (a subsidiary body to which the Assembly delegates some of its authority) and the Directorate (executive body). The Assembly, which co-opts up to 25 Swiss citizens, and the Assembly Council headed by the President of the committee are run by a president. The Presidency of the ICRC has been held by Peter Maurer since 2012.
The Directorate, which is comprised of five members, is headed by Yves Daccord.
A red cross on a white background (the reverse arrangement of the Swiss flag) was adopted as the distinctive sign of the ICRC in 1864.
In the Russian-Turkish War, the Ottoman Empire refused to use this logo, replacing it with a red crescent. The 1929 Geneva Convention recognized the red crescent as the second official symbol of the ICRC.
The third official logo, a red crystal, was introduced in 2005.
The ICRC was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1917, 1944 and 1963.
A delegation of the ICRC opened in Moscow in 1992. Its 250 employees work in Moscow and the North Caucasus. In 2012, the budget of the delegation amounted to about $15 million.
The area of responsibility of the Moscow delegation includes Russia, Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine. It focuses on past and present conflicts in the North Caucasus. The delegation supports strategic dialogue with Russia on humanitarian issues and international humanitarian law, cooperates with the Russian Red Cross and supports national societies in Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine.
