The International Committee of the Red Cross

The International Committee of the Red Cross is an organization devoted to helping the sick and the disadvantaged. Its mission is not a political one – the ICRC is purely devoted to helping the injured and the sick across the globe, both in times of conflict and in the wake of natural disaster.

I learned that the ICRC is mostly concerned with advancing International Humanitarian Law (IHL). IHL was conceived at the Geneva Convention and is supposed to protect wounded soldiers and uninvolved civilians from the horrors of war. Those who are party to the convention have enacted civilian law and military law to advance IHL. The ICRC’s main goal is to do everything possible to make sure that the governments follow the laws they themselves have implemented and to help the victims of conflict.

A question I had going into the ICRC was regarding IHL. I wanted to gauge the respect that the ICRC and IHL command from the governments involved in the Geneva Convention. I realized that the only way the ICRC and IHL have been able to maintain any credibility and respect at all has been through consistent effort to behave in accordance with the rules set within the ICRC itself. If ICRC was ever perceived as a political organization that made judgments about a given conflict and if it ever used the humanitarian tools it commands to aid and assist one party in a conflict over another, it would instantly lose all credibility it has as a neutral organization and one only interested in the well-being of victims. The ICRC has done a terrific job building the reputation it has established for more than 100 years, and I find it fascinating that the governments of the world have come to respect the ICRC as they do.

Overall, I would say the presentation at ICRC was mildly interesting at best, but I did learn considerably about IHL and I am grateful for the opportunity I had to visit.