Normative Gatekeeping (1863–1921)

2020 ◽  
pp. 29-57
Author(s):  
Giovanni Mantilla
Keyword(s):  
International Committee ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Internal Conflict ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
International Regulation ◽  
International Debate ◽  
Common Cause ◽  
Internal Conflicts ◽  
The Social ◽  
Rule Making

This chapter demonstrates how the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) faced important hurdles in its early years which threatened its position as a humanitarian broker and locked a certain conservatism inside it. It recounts the history and politics of international debate on the international regulation of armed conflict until 1921. It also discusses proposals regarding humanitarian conduct in internal conflict from 1863 to 1921 and highlights the elements that generate the social pressure that is essential to rule making. The chapter refers to the importance of norm entrepreneurs, who forcefully seize on the creation of new rules, and bring and promote rules in public forums, such as rallying others around a common cause. It describes the norms of sovereignty that prevailed in Europe in the second half of the nineteenth century and militated against the emergence of legal proposals regarding internal conflicts.

Understanding Public Engagement With Global Aid Agencies on Twitter: A Technosocial Framework

2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (12) ◽  
pp. 1684-1707 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saif Shahin ◽  
Zehui Dai
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
International Development ◽  
International Committee ◽  
Development Cooperation ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
The Public ◽  
Multiple Voices ◽  
The Social ◽  
Agency For International Development ◽  
Development Institutions

This study develops a technosocial framework for assessing the efficacy of global aid agencies’ use of Twitter’s algorithmic affordances for participatory social change. We combine computational and interpretive methods to examine tweets posted by three global aid agencies—U.S. Agency for International Development, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, and the International Committee of the Red Cross—as well as public tweets that mention these agencies ( N = ~100,000). Results indicate that when an agency (a) replies to or retweets public tweeters, (b) includes publicly oriented hashtags and hyperlinks in its tweets, and (c) tweets about topics that the public is also interested in and tweeting about, the social network that develops around the agency is more interconnected, decentralized, and reciprocal. Our framework can help development institutions build more participatory social networks, with multiple voices helping determine collective goals and strategies of collective action for sustainable social change. We also discuss the theoretical implications and methodological significance of our approach.

The ICRC as seen through the pages of the Review, 1869–1913: Personal observations

2018 ◽  
Vol 100 (907-909) ◽  
pp. 45-69
Author(s):  
David P. Forsythe
Keyword(s):  
International Committee ◽  
Support Staff ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Red Cross

AbstractThe early years of the Review, then called the Bulletin International des Sociétés de la Croix-Rouge, provide numerous insights into the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which edited the journal. Since the ICRC was very small in those days and without support staff, one learns a great deal, especially about Gustave Moynier, who led the organization and carried out most of the editing duties at the Bulletin. The reader can trace the role of religious and other motivations, attitudes toward colonialism, the evolving nature of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and the ICRC's place therein, and complex relations with States. This early era, as richly recorded in the journal, stimulates a number of questions about further research into ICRC and Red Cross history.

Squaring the Circle

2020 ◽  
pp. 58-97
Author(s):  
Giovanni Mantilla
Keyword(s):  
Social Pressure ◽  
International Committee ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
New Wave ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Step Process ◽  
Internal Conflicts ◽  
Normative Pressure ◽  
Geneva Conventions ◽  
Shared Interest

This chapter cites the adoption of Common Article 3 (CA3) as the product of a two-step process characterized by normative pressure and social pressure via forum isolation. It illustrates how the action of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was often hindered by government refusal to admit its services or to show humanitarian restraint in internal violence despite the normative inroads made in 1921. It also mentions a new wave of civil war atrocity that was key for slowly generating a shared interest among a majority of states to include humanitarian protections for internal conflicts in the Geneva Conventions. The chapter shows how intense public and private pressures blocked the dismissal of the idea of humanizing internal conflicts and tamed delegates pushing for high conditions of application. It investigates the early Cold War contest between competing liberal and socialist ideologies that accentuated global political status struggles.

The protection of foreign workers and volunteers in situations of internal conflict, with special reference to the taking of hostages

1992 ◽  
Vol 32 (287) ◽  
pp. 143-172
Author(s):  
Carlos Jiménez Piernas
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Internal Conflict ◽  
Foreign Workers ◽  
Social Stability ◽  
Internal Conflicts ◽  
The Social ◽  
Breeding Grounds ◽  
Fundamental Rights And Freedoms ◽  
The Individual

One has only to glance at a newspaper to realize that much of today's world is in a state of upheaval and permanent crisis. Many countries are affected by internal conflicts of one sort or another, making the social stability usually enjoyed in North America and Western Europe a rare privilege. These internal conflicts constitute fertile breeding grounds for the most arbitrary violence against defenceless victims and for increasingly frequent violations of the fundamental rights and freedoms of the individual, whether a national of the country concerned or an alien.

Humanitarian aid to the victims of internal conflicts. Meeting of a Commission of Experts in Geneva

1963 ◽  
Vol 3 (23) ◽  
pp. 79-91
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Humanitarian Aid ◽  
International Committee ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
Internal Conflicts ◽  
Geneva Conventions ◽  
The Individual

Article 3 common to the four Geneva Conventions constitutes a striking affirmation of humanitarian protection.Out of respect which is due to the individual, the States parties to these Conventions have in fact accepted to limit, to a certain extent, their liberty of action as regards their own nationals in the case of internal conflicts. International law has thus managed to penetrate a field hitherto exclusively reserved to internal law and the International Committee of the Red Cross has been especially mentioned as being capable, under certain conditions, of acting as guarantor for such protection.

The early years of the Red Cross

1963 ◽  
Vol 3 (24) ◽  
pp. 122-139
Author(s):  
Pierre Boissier
Keyword(s):  
International Committee ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
The Face ◽  
First Time ◽  
Clay Pipe

The Russians say that one must not go to Tula with a samovar, because it is there that samovars are made. The English avoid taking coals to Newcastle. In the same way, the Dutch would not go to Gouda with a clay pipe. To speak about the Red Cross before an assembly such as this, composed of loyal friends of the International Committee and distinguished servants of the institution, is rather like flying in the face of the wise counsel of so many nations. In such tricky circumstances, I have only one recourse and that is to take refuge in a past as distant as possible. Fortunately, the Centenary which we are celebrating today invites me to do just that. It was in fact a century and a day ago that five gentlemen, as unlike each other as it is possible to be, met together for the first time.

Social Pressure in International Lawmaking

2020 ◽  
pp. 13-28
Author(s):  
Giovanni Mantilla
Keyword(s):  
Political Process ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Social Pressure ◽  
International Committee ◽  
Internal Conflict ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Specific Mechanism ◽  
Social Reputation

This chapter elaborates on humanitarian standards that were born out of a long and tortuous political process of social pressure. It presents a theoretical framework to understand the process of rule emergence and codification. It also looks at the process through which the humanitarian legalization of internal conflict became an issue of international concern. The chapter explains how and why the principal “norm entrepreneur” behind the international humanitarian law and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) hesitated to push for treaty-based legalization of internal conflict and place it on states' legal agenda. It analyzes the importance of a specific mechanism of social pressure during legal codification processes amid international political contests among states for status and social reputation.

scholarly journals Tutti Fratelli? Perspectives and Challenges for International Humanitarian Law

2010 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 123
Author(s):  
Kenneth J Keith
Keyword(s):  
International Committee ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Peace Agreements ◽  
The Hague ◽  
The Law ◽  
Training Programmes ◽  
And Training

This article is based on addresses given in The Hague, Wellington and Auckland in 2009 to mark the 150th anniversary of the beginnings of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. Out of a dreadful day of war, the Battle of Solferino, was born a great humanitarian institution which later became the International Committee of the Red Cross. The author discusses seven matters from the early years of the organisation: first was the importance of simple humanity; second was the principle of non-discrimination; third was a positive obligation to collect and care for the wounded and sick; fourth was about the rights and responsibilities of the individuals involved in warfare; fifth was the importance of getting peace agreements before hostilities began; sixth was establishing of national societies for the relief for the wounded before the same; and finally, the law was inherently humanitarian in nature. The author then discusses the implementation of international humanitarian law, arguing for two main methods: education and training programmes, and compliance through negotiation with governments. The author stresses the importance of adhering to laws during times of warfare by emphasising the values on which the law is based. 

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