International Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

International Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies The Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies are independent, non-governmental, neutral organizations that operate both on a national and international level to guarantee the protection of human health and human rights, and alleviate human suffering caused by war, famine, disasters and poverty through the world. It comprises various distinct organizations that operate independently of each other while sharing common goals, principles, statutes and overall organization. The first of these organizations is The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), based in Geneva, Switzerland and founded in 1863, whose mission is to protect and assist the victims of armed conflicts impartially. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) coordinates the activity of the various National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Its primary focus is to provide a fast response to all global and large-scale humanitarian emergencies by cooperating with different national governments. The National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies operate as single entities on a national level in all the 188 nations that are part of the Federation. The original idea of an independent, non-discriminating society to help alleviate injured people’s sufferings during wartime, was born in the mind of the Swiss businessman Jean-Henri Dunant. In 1859, during a business trip to Italy, he witnessed the atrocities caused by the war in the aftermath of the Battle of Solferino. Before that time, in fact, people who got wounded in the battlefield had no form of organized assistance apart from some few army surgeons. Those were too few and had no way to treat the thousands of soldiers that were maimed and injured after every battle, often having no choice other than leaving them on the field dying from their grievous wounds. Shocked by what he saw, Dunant managed to coordinate the local villagers to provide at least a basic form of assistance and accommodation to the 40,000 wounded soldiers, and wrote a book, entitled “A Memory of Solferino,” to testify what he saw. A few years later, in 1863, together with the lawyer Gustave Moynier and three other people (the retired general Guillaume-Henri Dufour and the physicians Louis Appia and Théodore Maunoir) they formed the "Committee of the Five." Together, the three organized an international conference in Geneva which was attended by various government delegates, to develop a system that would provide universal and neutral medical services on the battlefield. In 1864, the Swiss government ratified the first Geneva Convention "for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded in Armies in the Field", which was thus signed by various states and kingdoms. The various national Red Cross societies started to be founded, and in 1876 the committee adopted its official name of "International Committee of the Red Cross" (ICRC). During both World Wars, Red Cross nurses offered medical support to all the countries involved in the war, helped with diplomatic efforts that guaranteed the safe exchange of prisoners of war (POWs) from all sides, and ameliorated the suffering of civilian populations. For example, they enforced the ban on non-conventional weapons such as poisonous gasses and biological agents. Red Cross volunteers also helped the families of both prisoners and soldiers to keep their hopes by distributing their letters, messages and parcels in and out of detention camps. [Photo 1] Red Cross health workers helping a wounded French soldier during World War I. In 1919 the president of the American Red Cross Henry Davison founded the League of Red Cross Societies (LORCS) by joining the National Red Cross Societies of Britain, France, Italy, Japan and the United States. The original intent was to expand Red Cross activity not just to war times and battlefield healing of the wounded but to provide a rapid response and relief to all kind of humanitarian emergencies, from natural disasters to epidemic outbursts, droughts and all those large-scale events that could let people fall into abject poverty conditions. In one of his first relief missions, the LORCS (which was renamed "International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)" in 1991) provided aid and assistance to the victims of the Povolzhye famine. The drought caused more than 6 million deaths of starvation and typhus in Russia and Poland in 1921. The League also helped Japanese population after the earthquake of 1923, and aid supplies during the Abyssinian War between Ethiopia and Italy in 1935-36. In 1949 the last Fourth Geneva Convention was adopted after World War II, to establish a series of laws that define humanitarian protections for civilians in a war zone. The Fourth Geneva Convention has been ratified by 196 countries, and was later expanded in 1977 to include its application to internal conflicts such as civil wars, and is now regarded as part of the body of customary international laws. In 1990 the ICRC was the first independent and private organization to be granted the observer status privilege by the United Nations General Assembly. In 1997 the IFRC signed the Seville Agreement with ICRC, defining that while IFRC takes the lead during all non-war related large-scale events and emergencies, while ICRC will deal with all strife caused by armed conflicts and their consequences (refugees, war camps, POWs, reconstruction etc.). Today the Red Cross, Red Crescent, Red Crystal, Red Lion with Sun and the Red Shield of David are all symbols known through the world and serve as protection markings during armed conflicts to grant safe haven and assistance to both civilians and wounded soldiers. The other emblem such as the Red Crescent or Red Crystal were used instead of the Red Cross in all the armies and places where a cross would alienate people from seeking protection, as it happened with Muslim soldiers during the 1876-1878 Russo-Turkish War. While for most of the Red Cross’ history these emblems were widely considered a universal sign of neutrality of significant protective value, in recent times from the 1990s onward, many Red Cross emissaries and convoys were brutally murdered showing and alarmingly increase in disrespect for these symbols. The reasons behind many of those killings are still unknown as well as the identity of the murderers. The Red Cross and the members of its original Committee received four Nobel Peace Prizes through the 20th century, the first one of which was awarded to Jean-Henri Dunant in 1901. The second and third one were awarded to ICRC itself in 1917 and 1944 for the outstanding work done during, respectively, World War I and World War II. In 1963 both IFRC and ICRC got their fourth joined Nobel Prize to celebrate the centennial of their foundation. Today the ICRC is a private, independent group of 25 Swiss Committees who serve for renewable four-year terms, helped by a number of non-Swiss delegates that operate abroad. In 1965 during the 20th International Conference of the Red Cross in Vienna, the Fundamental Principles of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement were proclaimed to define the mission of these societies fully. The basic universal principles of Humanity and Impartiality clearly state that there’s no difference between any human being in times of need, regardless of race, gender, age, nationality or religion. Everyone has the same right to receive assistance, with priority given only “to the most urgent cases of distress”. Red Cross will never support any political or armed side during a conflict, will never engage in any controversies or hostilities and will always maintain his autonomy from any government or sovereign authority, as clearly explained by the Neutrality and Independence principles. Red Cross will shun any form of profit and will only share its resources for aid those who need them most, so Voluntary Service is mandatory to prevent any desire for personal gain. The last two principles Unity and Universality instead define that only one Red Cross or Red Crescent society could be present in any single country, and that all these societies through the world are on the same level, sharing equal status, duties and responsibilities. Similarly to ICRC, the IFRC’s primary mission is “To inspire, encourage, facilitate and promote at all times all forms of humanitarian activities by National Societies, with a view to preventing and alleviating human suffering, and thereby contributing to the maintenance and promotion of human dignity and peace in the world.” While both ICRC and IFRC share similar aims and goals and often partake in the same actions to reach an universal objective of humanitarian assistance, their scope and fields of activity are somewhat different. For the most part, the ICRC today deals with all the humanitarian issues that generate from violence, other than just conflict itself. ICRC opera does not just limits on providing medical assistance for wounded soldiers in battlefields, but tries to solve all kind of issues related to post-war casualties and emergencies, for example protecting civilians during bombings and food shortages, and helping the refugees with water, shelter, health care and repatriation. ICRC also enforces Geneva Conventions laws (of which is the official guardian) and bans on unauthorized and inhumane weapons, issues international protocols to protect the victims of war, and proposes itself as a neutral partner for humanitarian diplomacy and communication between the parts involved in a conflict. Other actions include the promotion of a culture of respect for the law that could prevent violence such as, for example, sexual violence, rape and murder, cooperation between national organization to remove anti-personnel mines and restoration of family links destroyed during war time. On the other hand, IFRC shares a much tighter connection with the territory where it operates, as all the single Red Cross societies within the Federation serve on a national level, and are usually composed of volunteers of that same nation striving to solve actual crises by cooperating with their government administration. With this in mind, the IFRC national societies do not just operate in response to large-scale events such as natural disaster and other health crises, but try to invest in the long-term development of their own countries. For example, they promote risk reduction policies and protocols that favor safety over territory exploitation, help national administration systems to invest in health care campaigns such as vaccination programming and hygiene awareness sensitization, and address the various consequences of excessive urbanization or extreme poverty, such as water shortages and lack of proper sanitation. IFRC also promotes social inclusion programs, integration of disadvantaged people into their communities and sensitizes population and governments towards a culture of humanitarian values like peacefulness, non-violence, and non-discrimination. The largest relief operation after a massive disaster performed by Red Cross in all his history, was the American Red Cross mission mobilized after Hurricane Katrina struck the US in August 2005 causing $81 billion in damage and more than 1,800 deaths. The American Red Cross had to coordinate itself with dozens of other governmental and non-governmental organizations that were involved in the massive operations of recovery, such as the National Guard, US Navy and Air Force, the Salvation Army and the United Nations. About 74,000 volunteers and 250 Emergency Response Vehicles (ERVs) helped to provide 1,400 shelters for 160,000 evacuees, but also food, water and emergency treatment for up to 4 million people involved in the disaster. A massive donation campaign let Red Cross raise a $2.188 billion fund, ten times larger than the largest charity run ever collected, that was used to help during the immediate aftermath of the hurricane, and for long-term victims assistance like psychological and emotional support and reconstruction. In 2011 a megathrust earthquake off the Pacific coast of Tōhoku caused massive destruction through all Japanese shores, triggering a powerful tsunami with waves that reached heights of up to 40.5 meters, and the consequent Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant meltdown. The single most devastating natural disaster in history caused $235 billion of damage, to which a joint effort between American, Japanese and Singapore Red Cross associations responded by raising a fund for over $1 billion in donation. Thousands of Red Cross volunteers also helped residents and evacuees meet their basic needs by providing food, water, shelter, temporary medical facilities. They provided long-term support to destitute people through emotional support and home appliance packages, hoping to restore a sense of normality to more than 90,000 families moved into the temporary housing units provided by the government. Today both ICRC and IFRC are also involved in various poverty prevention programs through the world, especially in developing countries and countries affected by war. In Africa for example, many programs that improve the health of women and children are working, and a vast campaign to reduce the burden of malaria is actively pursued by providing the local population with insecticide-treated bed nets that stop mosquito bites. In Europe many surveys on current poverty were issued in the last years, that underlined an increasing number of families living in abject poverty conditions. As much as 30 percent of Central Europe's population lives below the poverty line, raising significant concerns for the Red Cross societies of Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and even Slovenia whose volunteers every day provide food for the undernourished population, finance school lunch programs and raise funds to assist the poorest orphaned children. [Photo 2] Volunteers from Yamagata prefecture serving hot meals to evacuees of Japan 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Regardless of all its achievements to spread humanitarian values through the world, Red Cross activity wasn’t free from criticism and controversial issue and scandals that invested it in the last couple of years. In 1993, the U.S. Food Drug Administration (FDA) obtained a permanent injunction to force the American Red Cross (ARC) to stop shipping blood and blood products. Many of them were, in fact, considered dangerous for human health because infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The infected blood products allegedly caused up to 20,000 hemophiliacs to die of AIDS since 1983. Similarly, over 1,100 Canadians were infected with HIV and 20,000 contracted Hepatitis C (HCV) because of the blood transfusions distributed by the Canadian Red Cross in the same period. However, all charges against the society were dropped after a 1.5 million dollars to the University of Ottawa was gifted to fund research and free scholarship for the victims and their relatives. In more recent times American Red Cross was also involved in several major scandals regarding the way funds raised during charity runs for major US disaster as the 11 September 2001 terrorists attacks and the Hurricane Sandy. In the aftermath of 9/11 suicidal bombings, over 547 million dollars were raised thanks to donations, but only 30% of these were actually used to help actual victims of the attacks. A later investigation showed that much of this money was given to rich New Yorkers that were only secondarily involved in the damage caused by the extremists’ attacks and that weren’t in actual financial need. The scandal eventually forced Dr. Bernadine Healy, president of the American Red Cross, to resign for her role in 2007. Because of these alleged accusations, later in 2012 after Hurricane Sandy hit the Eastern Coast causing up to $65 billion damage, Red Cross refused to disclose the details on how the funds raised were used to actually help the victims, calling for the state Freedom of Information Law's trade secret exemption. Dr. Claudio Butticè Independent Scholar See Also: Equity in Health; Natural Disaster Refugees; Nongovernmental Organizations; Medical Technology and Poverty; War and Poverty; Further Readings: Bugnion, François. “The International Committee of the Red Cross and the Protection of War Victims.” ICRC & Macmillan (ref. 0503), Geneva, 2003. ISBN 0-333-74771-2 David P. Forsythe. “The Humanitarians: The International Committee of the Red Cross.” Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 2005. ISBN 0-521-61281-0 International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) website https://www.icrc.org (Accessed October 2014) International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) website http://www.ifrc.org/ (Accessed October 2014) Reitman J. “Bad Blood: Crisis in the American Red Cross.” Kensington Publishing Corporation, New York, NY, 1996 Justin Elliot. “Red Cross: How We Spent Sandy Money Is a ‘Trade Secret’” http://www.propublica.org/article/red-cross-how-we-spent-sandy-money-is-a-trade-secret ProPublica, June 26, 2014 Willemin, Georges; Heacock, Roger. “International Organization and the Evolution of World Society. Volume 2: The International Committee of the Red Cross.” Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Boston, 1984. ISBN 90-247-3064-3 Williams, Grant. “Red Cross President Resigns Under Pressure From Board” The Chronicle of Philanthropy, 2001-10-26. Retrieved April 18, 2007