Centenary Celebration of the International Committee of the Red Cross

1963 ◽  
Vol 3 (24) ◽  
pp. 118-121
Author(s):  
Léopold Boissier
Keyword(s):  
International Committee ◽  
Dual Role ◽  
The Other ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Legal Principles ◽  
Army Medical ◽  
Hundredth Anniversary ◽  
The One

The International Committee of the Red Cross wishes to thank the large number of persons who have responded to its appeal and have come here to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of its foundation.Mr. Pierre Boissier will shortly be describing to you how this work began, reminding you how much the whole world owes to the five men of Geneva who created the Red Cross. Did they not accomplish, with astonishing courage and tenacity, the two great ideas of their colleague Henry Dunant: the declaration of legal principles leading, on the one hand, to the protection of the victims of war and, on the other hand, to the forming of National Societies whose task it was to assist the Army Medical Services in the theatre of hostilities ? Furthermore, by constituting themselves as an International Committee, they foresaw that it could carry out the dual role of a neutral and impartial body which would propagate and develop humanitarian law and also send delegates to places in which fighting was taking place who would see to the application of this law. The principles and the action would thus be complementary.

The role of the international committee of the red cross in resolving international conflicts

2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 154-161
Author(s):  
Adel Hamzah Othman
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Technological Development ◽  
International Committee ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
International Conflicts ◽  
History Of

The relevance of the problem under study lies in the presence of armed conflicts in the international arena and the presence of a diverse abundance of ways to regulate them. The main purpose of this study is to identify the main provisions of international law applicable in international conflicts through the lens of the role of the Committee of the Red Cross in its development. This study covers and thoroughly analyses the history and the main purpose of the origin of the organisation. Furthermore, the study engages in an in-depth examination of the basic tasks and principles of the Committee's activities. As a result of the study, the existing theories of the participation and influence of the Committee in international legal relations will be clearly identified, as well as those theories that have emerged due to innovations in legal thinking and are capable of covering the specific features of the practice and effectiveness of this non-governmental organisation. In addition, the designation of the actual problems of the existence of this organisation, its relevance in the modern world, and the strength of the support of the world society. Among the successes of the scientific analysis of the role of the International Committee of the Red Cross in the development of international humanitarian law applicable in international conflicts is the reasoned hypotheses and confirmed statements of the importance of the Committee, which are described by the features of modernity, relevance, and compliance with the information and technological development of social relations of participants in healthy international relations, their supporters and opponents. This also includes the systematisation of scientific research, their analysis and reasonable refutation. A journey into the history of the emergence of international conflicts, their modification according to the development of social relations, as well as the processes of globalisation, will be the subject of comparative analysis aimed at identifying new methods and ways to avoid them

Ten questions to Philip Spoerri, ICRC Director for International Law and Cooperation

2012 ◽  
Vol 94 (887) ◽  
pp. 1125-1134 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
International Committee ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Republic Of The Congo ◽  
The One

With the globalisation of market economies, business has become an increasingly prominent actor in international relations. It is also increasingly present in situations of armed conflict. On the one hand, companies operating in volatile environments are exposed to violence and the consequences of armed conflicts. On the other hand, some of their conduct in armed conflict may lead to violations of the law.The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) engages with the private sector on humanitarian issues, with the aim of ensuring compliance or clarifying the obligations that business actors have under international humanitarian law (IHL) and encouraging them to comply with the commitments they have undertaken under various international initiatives to respect IHL and human rights law.In times of conflict, IHL spells out certain responsibilities and rights for all parties involved. Knowledge of the relevant rules of IHL is therefore critical for local and international businesses operating in volatile contexts. In this Q&A section, Philip Spoerri, ICRC Director for International Law and Cooperation, gives an overview of the rules applicable to business actors in situations of conflict, and discusses some of the ICRC's engagement with business actors.Philip Spoerri began his career with the ICRC in 1994. Following a first assignment in Israel and the occupied and autonomous territories, he went on to be based in Kuwait, Yemen, Afghanistan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In Geneva, he headed the legal advisers to the Department of Operations. He returned to Afghanistan as head of the ICRC delegation there from 2004 to 2006, when he took up his current position. Before joining the ICRC, he worked as a lawyer in a private firm in Munich. He holds a PhD in law from Bielefeld University and has also studied at the universities of Göttingen, Geneva, and Munich.

Operational cooperation between participating National Societies and the International Committee of the Red Cross

1998 ◽  
Vol 38 (323) ◽  
pp. 233-248
Author(s):  
Andreas Lendorff ◽  
Andreas Lindner
Keyword(s):  
International Committee ◽  
The Other ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
The Face ◽  
International Activities ◽  
Operational Activities ◽  
The One ◽  
Operational Capacity

“Closely associating the National Societies with ICRC's operational activities (either via seconded staff contributions, or through project delegations or bilateral projects), on the one hand to increase the Movement's operational capacity in the face of growing needs, and on the other to respond to the National Societies' desire to intensify their international activities and make them better known.”

From the Bulletin International des Sociétés de la Croix Rouge to the International Review of the Red Cross: The Great War as a revelator

2018 ◽  
Vol 100 (907-909) ◽  
pp. 97-113
Author(s):  
Annette Becker
Keyword(s):  
International Committee ◽  
The Other ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
Great War ◽  
International Review ◽  
The One ◽  
The Great War

AbstractDuring the Great War, the Bulletin International des Sociétés de la Croix Rouge covered the immense work of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (National Societies). This article focuses on one particular angle of that work: the tensions and even contradictions between the ICRC's duty of neutrality and impartiality, on the one hand, and the national and sometimes nationalistic commitments of National Societies, which were naturally opposed to each other in wartime, on the other. While some of the Bulletin’s articles revealed real advances in thought on war and the protection of victims, others reflected the inertia caused by this fundamental contradiction.

The International Committee of the Red Widget? The Diversity Debate and International Humanitarian Law

2007 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 614-647 ◽  
Author(s):  
René Provost
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Cultural Diversity ◽  
International Committee ◽  
Cultural Relativism ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Laws Of War ◽  
The Impact

This article asserts there has been a lack of attention to the impact of cultural diversity within the field of international humanitarian law. Discussions surrounding culture in international humanitarian law have nearly always avoided the central issue of cultural particularism. This has been so in relation to the debate surrounding the emblem, in general surveys of humanitarian law, and in discussions of the laws of war in distinct legal and cultural traditions. The emblems debate, in particular, signals the elusiveness of rigid universality within international humanitarian law. Five elements are suggested to explain the resistance of humanitarian law to contagion by the cultural relativism debate in human rights: the nature of human rights, the distinct normative frameworks of human rights and humanitarian law, the unified conventional basis of humanitarian law, the very broad participation in the humanitarian regime, and the unique role of the International Committee of the Red Cross. While these reasons might explain the fact that the relativism debate in human rights did not readily transfer to humanitarian law, they offer no substantive basis for immunity for humanitarian law to the challenges posed by cultural diversity. Ultimately, the article proposes a legal pluralist approach that recognizes the role of actors in the cultural process of norm-creation. Given the continued violation of the laws of war, the author suggests a need to open the door to cultural diversity in order to generate greater compliance. Without cultural legitimacy, there is a danger that humanitarian law aspires to self-defeating universalism.

scholarly journals IUS Post Bellum and The Imperative to Supersede IHL

AJIL Unbound ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 110 ◽  
pp. 193-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pablo Kalmanovitz
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
The Other ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Protection ◽  
Rights Protection ◽  
The One

In recent debates about the interplay between international humanitarian law (IHL) and human rights law (IHRL), two broad camps have emerged. On the one hand, defenders of what may be called the convergence thesis have emphasized the inclusion of basic rights protections in the so-called “Geneva instruments” of IHL, as well as the role of human rights bodies in interpreting and amplifying rights protections in IHL through juridical or quasi-juridical interpretation and pronouncements. In armed conflicts, it is said, human rights apply concurrently and in ways that strengthen the protective constraints of IHL. Critics of the convergence thesis, on the other hand, have protested that pressing human rights obligations on state forces misunderstands the nature of both IHL and IHRL, and generates misplaced and impossibly onerous demands on belligerents—ultimately and perversely, the effect of emphasizing convergence may be less, not more, human rights protection.

The Role of the ICRC in the Development of International Humanitarian Law

1999 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 503-527 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
International Committee ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
War Victims ◽  
Unique Status

AbstractAs a result of its unique status, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been closely involved in the negotiations of humanitarian law treaties. Two of the most recent negotiations – the ban on anti-personnel landmines and the establishment of an International Criminal Court – are presented as case studies. They provide a good indication of the varied and dynamic functions played by the ICRC in the development of international law. This role is complementary to the ICRC's field activities in the world's ``hot spots'', which provide valuable insights into the real problems that war victims face in their daily lives.

Contrast and Representations in Syntax

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Building Blocks ◽  
Dual Role ◽  
Fundamental Question ◽  
The Other ◽  
Syntactic Structures ◽  
Parametric Variation ◽  
Syntactic Theory ◽  
The One ◽  
Morphological System

Syntactic contrasts, the systems of grammatical oppositions that exist within individual languages, are typically formally encoded in terms of features. The nature of syntactic contrast is tied to a fundamental question in generative syntactic theory: What is universal in syntax (and in language more generally), and what is variable? This volume explores the dual role of features, on the one hand defining a set of paradigmatic contrasts, and other the other hand acting as the building blocks of syntactic structures and the drivers of syntactic operations. In both roles, features are increasingly seen as the locus of parametric variation. The identification of parameters with features has opened up new possibilities for exploring connections between the morphological system of a language and its syntax, and suggests a new role for featural contrast in syntactic theory. The papers collected here represent a diversity of topics, perspectives, and concerns, but are united by an interest in morphosyntactic representations, and in the formal encoding of syntactic contrasts.

The International Committee of the Red Cross at Work

1969 ◽  
Vol 9 (98) ◽  
pp. 227-233
Author(s):  
Jacques Freymond
Keyword(s):  
International Committee ◽  
The Other ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
Soviet Republic ◽  
Moral Duties

In 1919 Bela Kun, the Hungarian revolutionary who, for a few months, was the head of the Soviet Republic of Hungary, declared to the delegate of the ICRC that he fully understood the position and the role of that institution. That private association of Swiss citizens, who, free from any governmental ties, were giving aid and comfort to the victims of war, wherever these might be found and without any distinction of nationality, religion or ideology, appeared to him to be truly representative of the Swiss people. In his view, the ICRC, because it was independent, because it was addressing itself direct to governments, reminding them of their moral duties towards prisoners, towards the soldiers of the other side, belonged to the revolutionary camp.

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