Part IV Activities of Organizations, Ch.14 Humanitarian Action

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weiss Thomas G
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
International Committee ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
For Profit ◽  
Humanitarian Action ◽  
War Zone ◽  
Local Actors ◽  
History Of ◽  
Humanitarian Space ◽  
The Cold War

This chapter begins by defining some key terms, including humanitarian action, humanitarianism, humanitarian space, and humanitarian intervention. It then examines the history of humanitarian action in wars through the lenses of three historical periods: the 19th century until World War I; the early 20th century through the end of the Cold War; and the last quarter-century. Next, it describes the entities that exert influence on the ground from outside a war zone: international NGOs, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the UN system, bilateral aid agencies, external military forces, for-profit firms, and the media. Operating alongside, and sometimes in opposition to, external agents in a particular war zone are local actors, which include NGOs and businesses as well as the armed belligerents. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the coordination of the various moving parts of the international humanitarian system.

Reflections on the development of the Movement and international humanitarian law through the lens of the ICRC Library's Heritage Collection

2018 ◽  
Vol 100 (907-909) ◽  
pp. 143-163
Author(s):  
Ismaël Raboud ◽  
Matthieu Niederhauser ◽  
Charlotte Mohr
Keyword(s):  
Geneva Convention ◽  
International Committee ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Action ◽  
The First World War ◽  
History Of ◽  
War Victims ◽  
The Way

AbstractThe International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Library was first created at the initiative of the ICRC's co-founder and president, Gustave Moynier. By the end of the nineteenth century, it had become a specialized documentation centre with comprehensive collections on the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, international humanitarian law (IHL) and relief to war victims, keeping track of the latest legal debates and technological innovations in the fields related to the ICRC's activities. The publications collected by the Library until the end of the First World War form a rich collection of almost 4,000 documents now known as the ancien fonds, the Library's Heritage Collection.Direct witness to the birth of an international humanitarian movement and of IHL, the Heritage Collection contains the era's most important publications related to the development of humanitarian action for war victims, from the first edition of Henry Dunant's groundbreaking Un souvenir de Solférino to the first mission reports of ICRC delegates and the handwritten minutes of the Diplomatic Conference that led to the adoption of the 1864 Geneva Convention. This article looks at the way this unique collection of documents retraces the history of the ICRC during its first decades of existence and documents its original preoccupations and operations, highlighting the most noteworthy items of the Collection along the way.

scholarly journals The Russian Red Cross in the Civil War

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-François Fayet
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
International Committee ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
Russian Civil War ◽  
Humanitarian Action ◽  
Red Army ◽  
History Of ◽  
Late Twentieth ◽  
Political Associations ◽  
Set Up

Based on Russian and non-Russian materials, this article examines the history of the Russian Red Cross Society during the Civil War. The ascension of the Bolsheviks to power led to the breakup of the Russian Red Cross Society (RRCS) into a multitude of national and political associations, each claiming its material and symbolic heritage. When the Civil War began, these fragments of the RRCS no longer existed as effective sanitary organisations. But in autumn 1918, as epidemics threatened troops and civil populations alike, RC institutions had to be set up again urgently. In view of their experience and infrastructure, the Moscow, Omsk, and Kiev RC organisations quickly became decisive players in the Civil War with the Red Army and the White armies of Kolchak, Denikin, and Wrangel. In many fields, these RC organisations acted as a substitute for the state. They were responsible for nursing, nutrition, and evacuation. On the external front, the material assets of the former RRC had to be recovered, Russian soldiers arrested abroad assisted, and the exclusivity of the RC emblem defended. In conclusion, this article argues that the Russian Civil War was a dramatic theatre of modern humanitarian action for the entire international RC movement (the International Committee of the Red Cross and the League of Red Cross Societies) in terms of the practices and laws that had to be invented. Given its fragmentary nature, the mix of identity, social, and ideological conflicts, the civilian populations in the foreground, and the intermingling of national and international players, the Russian Civil War was a forerunner of the “new wars” of the late twentieth century.

Palestine-Israel and the Neoliberal Ideal

2017 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
Luke Mathew Peterson
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Political Conflict ◽  
Territorial Dispute ◽  
Early Twenty ◽  
Economic Forces ◽  
Local Actors ◽  
History Of ◽  
Non Local ◽  
Clash Of Cultures ◽  
Social Upheaval

The following study envisions the modern history of the Palestinian- Israeli conflict through the application of previously underutilized theoretical frames. Beginning with the unprecedented political and social upheaval wrought upon the Middle East after the end of World War I, the article unfolds in three distinct sections. The first section provides an historical introduction to the global, transnational forces that guided the developing infrastructure of political conflict within the region. The second section articulates the ideological parameters of the international political and economic forces (“neoliberalism”) that connect the past and present of political conflict in the region as well as the local (state and non-state) and non-local actors involved in its contemporary manifestation. The third and final section reconceptualizes the Palestinian-Israeli conflict not exclusively as a territorial dispute or as a nebulous clash of cultures, but rather as a deliberate, operational casualty enduring in the service of an aggressive, transnational, and indeed historical force whose trajectory spans the length of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries: neoliberalism. In each sphere in which the neoliberal ideal has been applied – one, an historical fait accompli, another, a contemporary situation en cours – an important, connective element persists: the distinctly non-local origin of both the historical forces and the contemporary economic manifestations under examination.

The ICRC Library goes digital

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-2
Keyword(s):  
International Committee ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Reference Library ◽  
Parallel Development ◽  
Humanitarian Action ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Past

The ICRC Library is home to unique collections retracing the parallel development of humanitarian action and law during the past 150+ years. With the core of these collections now digitized, this reference library on international humanitarian law (IHL) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is a resource available to all, anytime, anywhere.

Hacking humanitarians: Defining the cyber perimeter and developing a cyber security strategy for international humanitarian organizations in digital transformation

2020 ◽  
Vol 102 (913) ◽  
pp. 367-387
Author(s):  
Massimo Marelli
Keyword(s):  
Cyber Security ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
International Committee ◽  
Digital Transformation ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
Digital Environment ◽  
Security Strategy ◽  
Humanitarian Action ◽  
Humanitarian Organizations

AbstractDigitalization and new technologies have an increasingly important role in today's humanitarian activities. As humanitarian organizations become more active in and reliant on new and digital technologies, they evolve from being simple bystanders to being fully fledged stakeholders in cyberspace, vulnerable to adverse cyber operations that could impact on their capacity to protect and assist people affected by armed conflict or other situations of violence.This shift makes it essential for humanitarian organizations to understand and properly map their resulting cyber perimeter. Humanitarian organizations can protect themselves and their activities by devising appropriate cyber strategies for the digital environment. Clearly defining the digital boundaries within which they carry out operations lays the groundwork for humanitarian organizations to develop a strategy to support and protect humanitarian action in the digital environment, channel available resources to where they are most needed, and understand the areas in which their operational dialogue and working modalities need to be adapted for cyberspace.The purpose of this article is to identify the unique problems facing international humanitarian organizations operating in cyberspace and to suggest ways to address them. More specifically, the article identifies the key elements that an international humanitarian organization should consider in developing a cyber security strategy. Throughout, the International Committee of the Red Cross and its specificities are used as an example to illustrate the problems identified and the possible ways to address them.

The International Committee of the Red Cross and humanitarian assistance: A policy analysis

1996 ◽  
Vol 36 (314) ◽  
pp. 512-531 ◽  
Author(s):  
David P. Forsythe
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
World History ◽  
International Committee ◽  
Humanitarian Assistance ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
Emergency Relief ◽  
Complex Emergencies ◽  
The Cold War

In today's armed conflicts and complex emergencies more civilians suffer than combatants. After the Cold War one could identify a zone of turmoil in which civilian suffering was acute. But one could also identify a zone of stability from which operated a complicated system of humanitarian assistance designed to respond to civilian suffering. Media coverage emphasized the suffering, but never before in world history had such a kaleidoscope of humanitarian actors tried to provide emergency relief during armed conflicts and complex emergencies. Inevitably calls were heard for better organization and coordination, and in 1991–92 the United Nations created a Department of Humanitarian Affairs (DHA).

scholarly journals THE ROLE OF THE HUMANITARIAN ACTION INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE FOR THE RED CROSS (ICRC) IN THE 2011 LIBYA REVOLUTION

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-54
Author(s):  
Fitri Adi Setyorini
Keyword(s):  
International Committee ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
Government Organizations ◽  
Humanitarian Action ◽  
Humanitarian Mission ◽  
Medical Supplies ◽  
East Region ◽  
One Step ◽  
The Arab Spring

This study discusses the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) role in protecting and assisting victims of the Libyan revolution in 2011. The purpose of this study is to explore more about the role of the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) in protecting and assisting victims of war as one step on a humanitarian mission. The author used the non-government organizations (NGOs) and humanitarian action concepts. The author's research method to analyze this study was a descriptive method through a literature review. Based on research done, the author found that the revolution in Libya in 2011 was one of the effects of the Arab Spring in the Middle East region. The author also found that the ICRC carried out its humanitarian missions by providing food, water, medical supplies, medical equipment, and clothing.

History of the International, Committee of the Red Cross

1963 ◽  
Vol 3 (32) ◽  
pp. 606-606
Keyword(s):  
International Committee ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
International Review ◽  
History Of ◽  
German Edition

The last issue of the International Review contained an article on the book which Mr. Pierre Boissier has just had published: Histoire du Comité international de la Croix-Rouge. The first volume, in French, is available from the Editions Plon, Paris. The German edition is still being prepared.

Eastern Europe in the Global History of Decolonization

2018 ◽  
pp. 350-372 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Mark ◽  
Quinn Slobodian
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
World War I ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
World War ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
New States ◽  
History Of ◽  
European Colonialism ◽  
The Cold War

This chapter places Eastern Europe into a broader history of decolonization. It shows how the region’s own experience of the end of Empire after the World War I led its new states to consider their relationships with both European colonialism and those were struggling for their future liberation outside their continent. Following World War II, as Communist regimes took power in Eastern Europe, and overseas European Empires dissolved in Africa and Asia, newly powerful relationships developed. Analogies between the end of empire in Eastern Europe and the Global South, though sometimes tortured and riddled with their own blind spots, were nonetheless potent rhetorical idioms, enabling imagined solidarities and facilitating material connections in the era of the Cold War and non-alignment. After the demise of the so-called “evil empire” of the Soviet Union, analogies between the postcolonial and the postcommunist condition allowed for further novel equivalencies between these regions to develop.

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