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79-702: After the first treaty was adopted in 1864, it was significantly revised and replaced in 1906, 1929, and finally 1949. It is inextricably linked to the International Committee of the Red Cross , which is both the instigator for the inception and enforcer of the articles in these conventions. The 1864 Geneva Convention was instituted during a critical period in European politics and the military. The American Civil War had been raging elsewhere since 1861, and would ultimately claim between 750,000 and 900,000 lives. Between

158-577: A "need for voluntary agencies to supplement…the official agencies charged with these responsibilities in every country." To ensure that its mission was widely accepted, it required a body of rules to govern its activities and those of the involved belligerent parties. Only one year later, the Swiss government invited the governments of all European countries and the United States, Brazil, and Mexico to attend an official diplomatic conference. Sixteen countries sent

237-547: A draft proposal for an additional convention for the protection of the civil population during an armed conflict was adopted by the International Red Cross Conference. Unfortunately, most governments had little interest in implementing this convention, and it was thus prevented from entering into force before the beginning of World War II. In the Interwar period , Bolivia and Paraguay were disputing possession of

316-503: A new and more comprehensive outlook, these things are necessary. The League was established in 1919 with Davison as its chairman. However, "Swiss aloofness or unilateralism was hard to overcome", and the relationship between the ICRC and the League became, and remained, a problem for years to come. The untimely death of Davison in 1922 after an operation will undoubtedly have had an adverse impact on

395-746: A red cross on a white background is the exact reverse of the flag of neutral Switzerland. It was later supplemented by two others which are the Red Crescent , and the Red Crystal . The Red Crescent was adopted by the Ottoman Empire during the Russo-Turkish war and the Red Crystal by the governments in 2005, as an additional emblem devoid of any national, political or religious connotation. The official mission statement says that: "The International Committee of

474-546: A staff of 3,000, the card index tracking prisoners contained 45 million cards, and 120 million messages were exchanged by the Agency. One major obstacle was that the Nazi -controlled German Red Cross refused to cooperate with the Geneva statutes including blatant violations such as the deportation of Jews from Germany and the mass murders conducted in the concentration camps run by

553-491: A task which was previously restricted to Swiss citizens. Indeed, since then, the share of staff without Swiss citizenship has increased to about 35%. On 16 October 1990, the UN General Assembly decided to grant the ICRC observer status for its assembly sessions and sub-committee meetings, the first observer status given to a private organization. The resolution was jointly proposed by 138 member states and introduced by

632-768: A total of twenty-six delegates to Geneva. On 22 August 1864, the conference adopted the first Geneva Convention "for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded in Armies in the Field". Representatives of 12 states and kingdoms signed the convention: The convention contained ten articles, establishing for the first time legally binding rules guaranteeing neutrality and protection for wounded soldiers, field medical personnel, and specific humanitarian institutions in an armed conflict. Furthermore,

711-588: A total of twenty-six delegates to Geneva. The meeting was presided over by General Guillaume Henri Dufour . The conference occurred in the Alabama room at Geneva's Hotel de Ville (city hall) on 22 August 1864. The conference adopted the first Geneva Convention "for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded in Armies in the Field". Representatives of 12 states signed the convention: The United Kingdom of Norway and Sweden signed in December. The United Kingdom signed

790-720: A year later in 1865. The Grand Duchy of Hesse , the Kingdom of Bavaria and Austria signed in 1866 following the conclusion of the Austro-Prussian War . The United States of America signed in 1882. The original document is preserved in the Swiss Federal Archives in Bern . In the past it has been loaned to the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum in Geneva. The convention "derived its obligatory force from

869-494: Is a French term used in the laws of war to refer to persons who are incapable of performing their combat duties during war . Examples include persons parachuting from their disabled aircraft , shipwreck survivors, as well as the sick, wounded, detained, or otherwise disabled. Intentional hostility from assumed persons removes any legal protection on their part. Under the 1949 Geneva Conventions , enemy combatants hors de combat are non-combatants and automatically granted

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948-543: Is part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement , along with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and 191 National Societies . It is the oldest and most honoured organization within the movement and one of the most widely recognized organizations in the world, having won three Nobel Peace Prizes (in 1917, 1944, and 1963). Up until the middle of

1027-402: Is tardy in conforming with life's realities and the needs of humankind", as such it is the duty of the Red Cross "to assist in the widening the scope of law, on the assumption that…law will retain its value", principally through the revision and expansion of these basic principles of the original Geneva Convention. For a detailed discussion of each article of the treaty, see the original text and

1106-518: The Nansen passport for stateless refugees and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1922, appointed two delegates from the ICRC as his deputies. A year before the end of the war, the ICRC received the 1917 Nobel Peace Prize for its outstanding wartime work. It was the only Nobel Peace Prize awarded in the period from 1914 to 1918. After the war ended, Henry Pomeroy Davison , who had been Chairman of

1185-500: The 19th century , there were no organized and well-established army nursing systems for casualties and no safe and protected institutions to accommodate and treat those who were wounded on the battlefield. In June 1859, the Swiss businessman Henry Dunant travelled to Italy to meet French emperor Napoléon III with the intention of discussing difficulties in conducting business in Algeria, at that time occupied by France. When he arrived in

1264-541: The American Red Cross was founded through the efforts of Clara Barton . More and more countries signed the Geneva Convention and began to respect it in practice during armed conflicts. In a rather short period of time, the Red Cross gained huge momentum as an internationally respected movement, and the national societies became increasingly popular as a venue for volunteer work. When the first Nobel Peace Prize

1343-453: The Gran Chaco - a desert region between the two countries. The dispute escalated into a full-scale conflict in 1932. During the war the ICRC visited 18,000 Bolivian prisoners of war and 2,500 Paraguayan detainees. With the help of the ICRC both countries made improvements to the conditions of the detainees. The most reliable primary source on the role of the Red Cross during World War II are

1422-537: The Restoring Family Links effort of the organization. The complete index is on loan today from the ICRC to the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum in Geneva. The right to access the index is still strictly restricted to the ICRC. During the entire war, the ICRC monitored warring parties' compliance with the Geneva Conventions of the 1907 revision and forwarded complaints about violations to

1501-504: The 1990s, more delegates lost their lives than at any point in its history, especially when working in local and internal armed conflicts. These incidents often demonstrated a lack of respect for the rules of the Geneva Conventions and their protection symbols. Among the slain delegates were: In 2011, ICRC launched the Health Care In Danger campaign to highlight risks to humanitarian healthcare workers. The original motto of

1580-513: The 1995 ceremony to commemorate the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp , the President of the ICRC, Cornelio Sommaruga , sought to show that the organization was fully aware of the gravity of The Holocaust and the need to keep the memory of it alive, so as to prevent any repetition of it. He paid tribute to all those who had suffered or lost their lives during the war and publicly regretted

1659-432: The Agency, about 200,000 prisoners were exchanged between the warring parties, released from captivity and returned to their home country. The organizational card index of the Agency accumulated about 7 million records from 1914 to 1923, each card representing an individual prisoner or missing person. The card index led to the identification of about 2 million POWs and the ability to contact their families, as part of

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1738-553: The Condition of Wounded, Sick and Shipwrecked Members of Armed Forces at Sea", now called the second Geneva Convention, was brought under the Geneva Convention umbrella as a successor to the 1907 Hague Convention X . The 1929 Geneva convention "relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War" may have been the second Geneva Convention from a historical point of view (because it was actually formulated in Geneva), but after 1949 it came to be called

1817-569: The Geneva Society for Public Welfare; physician Louis Appia , who had significant experience working as a field surgeon; Appia's friend and colleague Théodore Maunoir , from the Geneva Hygiene and Health Commission ; and Guillaume-Henri Dufour , a Swiss Army general of great renown. Eight days later, on 17 February 1863, the five men held the first meeting of the Sub-committee and decided

1896-548: The German government. Moreover, two other main parties to the conflict, the Soviet Union and Japan , were not party to the 1929 Geneva Conventions and were not legally required to follow the rules of the conventions. During the war, the ICRC failed to obtain an agreement with Nazi Germany about the treatment of detainees in concentration camps, and it eventually abandoned applying pressure to avoid disrupting its work with POWs. There

1975-484: The ICRC from all taxes and fees, guarantees the protected and duty-free transfer of goods, services, and money, provides the ICRC with secure communication privileges at the same level as foreign embassies, and simplifies Committee travel in and out of Switzerland. The ICRC continued its activities throughout the 1990s. It broke its customary media silence when it denounced the Rwandan genocide in 1994. It struggled to prevent

2054-432: The ICRC in controlling the Red Cross action in international affairs. He argued that: It should be in reality, and not merely in name an International Committee, a Committee on which there will be representatives from all countries, instead of, as at present, a committee consisting of amiable but somewhat ineffective Geneva gentlemen. That which calls itself "international" has grown rather provincial… New blood, new methods,

2133-462: The ICRC is the Red Cross on white background (the inverse of the Swiss flag ) with the words "COMITE INTERNATIONAL GENEVE" circling the cross. Under the Geneva Convention, the red cross, red crescent and red crystal emblems provide protection for military medical services and relief workers in armed conflicts and is to be placed on humanitarian and medical vehicles and buildings. The original emblem that has

2212-513: The ICRC published a number of postcards with scenes from the POW camps. The pictures showed the prisoners in day-to-day activities such as the distribution of letters from home. The intention of the ICRC was to provide the families of the prisoners with some hope and solace and to alleviate their uncertainties about the fate of their loved ones. After the end of the war, the ICRC organized the return of about 420,000 prisoners to their home countries. In 1920,

2291-561: The ICRC was invited, along with the IFRC and AFSC , by the United Nations to take part in a $ 32 million emergency relief programme working with Palestinian refugees. The ICRC was given responsibility for the areas that are now the West Bank and Israel . On 12 August 1949, further revisions to the existing two Geneva Conventions were adopted. An additional convention "for the Amelioration of

2370-404: The ICRC's demand to allow delegates to visit the concentration camps. This agreement was bound by the condition that these delegates would have to stay in the camps until the end of the war. Ten delegates, among them Louis Haefliger ( Mauthausen Camp ), Paul Dunant ( Theresienstadt Camp ) and Victor Maurer ( Dachau Camp ), accepted the assignment and visited the camps. Louis Haefliger prevented

2449-453: The ICRC, aggravated by its lack of decisiveness in taking steps to aid the victims of Nazi persecution. This failure will remain part of the ICRC's memory, as will the courageous acts of individual ICRC delegates at the time. On 4 October 2023 the committee issued a set of rules for civilian hackers to abide by . At the end of the Cold War , the ICRC's work actually became more dangerous. In

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2528-575: The International Committee of the Red Cross was Inter Arma Caritas ("Amidst War, Charity"). It has preserved this motto while other Red Cross organizations have adopted others. Due to Geneva's location in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, the ICRC is also known under its initial French name Comité international de la Croix-Rouge (CICR). However, the ICRC has three official languages (English, French and Spanish). The official symbol of

2607-415: The International Committee. The controversy surrounding Dunant's business dealings and the resulting negative public opinion, combined with an ongoing conflict with Gustave Moynier, led to Dunant's expulsion from his position as a member and secretary. He was charged with fraudulent bankruptcy and a warrant for his arrest was issued. Thus, he was forced to leave Geneva and never returned to his home city. In

2686-567: The International Status of Refugees , of 28 October 1933. The activities of the committee were similar to those during World War I: visiting and monitoring POW camps, organizing relief assistance for civilian populations, and administering the exchange of messages regarding prisoners and missing persons. By the end of the war, 179 delegates had conducted 12,750 visits to POW camps in 41 countries. The Central Information Agency on Prisoners-of-War ( Zentralauskunftsstelle für Kriegsgefangene ) had

2765-618: The Italian ambassador, Vieri Traxler , in memory of the organization's origins in the Battle of Solferino. An agreement with the Swiss government signed on 19 March 1993, affirmed the already long-standing policy of full independence of the committee from any possible interference by Switzerland. The agreement protects the full sanctity of all ICRC property in Switzerland including its headquarters and archive, grants members and staff legal immunity, exempts

2844-533: The Netherlands , Austrian Empire , Kingdom of Prussia , Russian Empire , Kingdom of Saxony , United Kingdoms of Sweden and Norway , and Spanish Empire . Among the proposals written in the final resolutions of the conference, adopted on 29 October 1863, were: Only one year later, the Swiss government invited the governments of all European countries, as well as the United States, Brazil, and Mexico, to attend an official diplomatic conference. Sixteen countries sent

2923-411: The Red Cross (ICRC) is an impartial, neutral, and independent organization whose exclusively humanitarian mission is to protect the lives and dignity of victims of war and internal violence and to provide them with assistance." It also conducts and coordinates international relief and works to promote and strengthen international humanitarian law and universal humanitarian principles. The core tasks of

3002-501: The Red Cross knew by November 1942 about the Nazi's annihilation plans for the Jews – and even discussed it with U.S. officials – the group did nothing to inform the public, maintaining silence even in the face of pleas by Jewish groups. Because the Red Cross was based in Geneva and largely funded by the Swiss government, it was very sensitive to Swiss wartime attitudes and policies. In October 1942,

3081-548: The Sub-committee should declare itself constituted a "Permanent International Committee", which would thus continue to exist as an "International Committee for Relief of Wounded in the event of War" after its mandate from the Geneva Society for Public Welfare had expired. Among other activities, the Committee organized an international conference in Geneva in October (26–29) 1863 to develop possible measures to improve medical services on

3160-465: The Swiss government and the Red Cross' board of members vetoed a proposal by several Red Cross board members to condemn the persecution of civilians by the Nazis. For the rest of the war, the Red Cross took its cues from Switzerland in avoiding acts of opposition or confrontation with the Nazis. On 12 March 1945, ICRC President Jacob Burckhardt received a message from SS General Ernst Kaltenbrunner accepting

3239-575: The War Council of the American Red Cross pressed for the creation of an international organization to coordinate the work of the different national Red Cross societies. Based on his recommendation, the League of Red Cross Societies was founded on 15 May 1919, by the societies of Great Britain , France , Japan , Italy , and the United States . Davison, wanted the League of Red Cross Societies to supersede

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3318-462: The articles to maritime warfare . The 1906 version was updated and replaced by the 1929 version when minor modifications were made to it. It was again updated and replaced by the 1949 version, better known as the Final Act of Geneva Conference, 1949. However, as Jean S. Pictet , Director of the International Committee of the Red Cross, noted in 1951, "the law, however, always lags behind charity; it

3397-568: The basis of the Hague Convention 's "Laws and Customs of War on Land" of 1907. This convention was also the legal basis for the ICRC's work for prisoners of war. In addition to the work of the International Prisoner-of-War Agency as described above this included inspection visits to POW camps . A total of 524 camps throughout Europe were visited by 41 delegates from the ICRC until the end of the war. Between 1916 and 1918,

3476-539: The battle due to sickness or injury), as well as medical and religious personnel, and civilians in the zone of battle. Among its principal provisions: Due to significant ambiguities in the articles with certain terms and concepts and even more so to the rapidly developing nature of war and military technology, the original articles had to be revised and expanded, largely at the Second Geneva Conference in 1906 and Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 which extended

3555-796: The battlefield as well as medics and field hospitals. On 9 February 1863, the Geneva Society for Public Welfare held a meeting where it was decided to give serious consideration to the suggestions made in Dunant's book and appointed five of its members to form a Sub-committee charged with the preparation of a Memorandum on these matters for submission to the Welfare Congress to be held in Berlin in September 1863. The members of this Sub-committee, aside from Dunant himself, were Gustave Moynier , lawyer and chairman of

3634-510: The battlefield. The conference was attended by 36 individuals: eighteen official delegates from national governments, six delegates from other non-governmental organizations, seven non-official foreign delegates, and the five members of the committee. The states and kingdoms represented by official delegates were Grand Duchy of Baden , Kingdom of Bavaria , Second French Empire , United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland , Kingdom of Hanover , Grand Duchy of Hesse , Kingdom of Italy , Kingdom of

3713-404: The bloodshed was not excessive the sight of it was unfamiliar and shocking. Despite its intent of ameliorating the ravages of war, the inception of the 1864 Geneva Convention inaugurated "a renewal of military activity on a large scale, to which the people of western Europe…had not been accustomed since the first Napoleon had been eliminated." The movement for an international set of laws governing

3792-469: The book to leading political and military figures throughout Europe. In addition to penning a vivid description of his experiences in Solferino in 1859, he explicitly advocated the formation of national voluntary relief organizations to help nurse wounded soldiers in the case of war. In addition, he called for the development of international treaties to guarantee the neutrality and protection of those wounded on

3871-423: The calling together of an international conference and soon co-founded with the Swiss lawyer Gustave Moynier , the International Committee of the Red Cross in 1863. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), while recognising that it is "primarily the duty and responsibility of a nation to safeguard the health and physical well-being of its people", knew there would always, especially in times of war, be

3950-555: The commentary. There are currently 196 countries party to the 1949 Geneva Conventions , including this first treaty but also including the other three. International Committee of the Red Cross The International Committee of the Red Cross ( ICRC ) is a humanitarian organization based in Geneva , Switzerland, and is a three-time Nobel Prize laureate. The organization has played an instrumental role in

4029-422: The committee, which are derived from the Geneva Conventions and its own statutes are: The ICRC drew up seven fundamental principles in 1965 that were adopted by the entire Red Cross Movement. They are humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, volunteerism, unity, and universality. Hors de combat Hors de combat ( French: [ɔʁ də kɔ̃ba] ; lit.   ' out of combat ' )

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4108-577: The convention defined two specific requirements for recognition of a national relief society by the International Committee: Directly following the establishment of the Geneva Convention, the first national societies were founded in Belgium, Denmark, France, Oldenburg , Prussia, Spain, and Württemberg. Also in 1864, Louis Appia and Charles van de Velde , a captain of the Dutch Army , became

4187-515: The crimes that happened in and around Srebrenica in 1995 but admitted, "We must acknowledge that despite our efforts to help thousands of civilians forcibly expelled from the town and despite the dedication of our colleagues on the spot, the ICRC's impact on the unfolding of the tragedy was extremely limited." It went public once again in 2007 to decry "major human rights abuses" by Burma's military government including forced labour, starvation, and murder of men, women, and children. By taking part in

4266-490: The development of rules of war and promoting humanitarian norms . State parties (signatories) to the Geneva Convention of 1949 and its Additional Protocols of 1977 ( Protocol I , Protocol II ) and 2005 have given the ICRC a mandate to protect victims of international and internal armed conflicts . Such victims include war wounded persons, prisoners , refugees , civilians , and other non-combatants . The ICRC

4345-592: The fall of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 and the rise of his nephew in the Italian campaign of 1859 , the powers had maintained peace in western Europe. Yet, with the 1853–1856 conflict in the Crimea , war had returned to Europe, and while those troubles were "in a distant and inaccessible region" northern Italy was "so accessible from all parts of western Europe that it instantly filled with curious observers;" while

4424-539: The first independent and neutral delegates to work under the symbol of the Red Cross in an armed conflict. Three years later in 1867, the first International Conference of National Aid Societies for the Nursing of the War Wounded was convened. Also in 1867, Henry Dunant was forced to declare bankruptcy due to business failures in Algeria, partly because he had neglected his business interests during his tireless activities for

4503-490: The following years, national societies were founded in nearly every country in Europe. The project resonated well with patriotic sentiments that were on the rise in the late-nineteenth-century, and national societies were often encouraged as signifiers of national moral superiority. In 1876, the committee adopted the name "International Committee of the Red Cross" (ICRC), which is still its official designation today. Five years later,

4582-507: The forceful eviction or blasting of Mauthausen-Gusen by alerting American troops, thereby saving the lives of about 60,000 inmates. His actions were condemned by the ICRC because they were deemed as acting unduly on his own authority and risking the ICRC's neutrality. Only in 1990 was his reputation finally rehabilitated by ICRC President Cornelio Sommaruga . In 1944, the ICRC received its second Nobel Peace Prize. As in World War I, it received

4661-404: The four conventions and their added protocols contain more than 600 articles, a remarkable expansion when compared to the mere 10 articles in the first 1864 convention. In celebration of its centennial in 1963, the ICRC, together with the League of Red Cross Societies , received its third Nobel Peace Prize. Since 1993, non-Swiss individuals have been allowed to serve as Committee delegates abroad,

4740-419: The implied consent of the states which accepted and applied them in the conduct of their military operations." Despite its basic mandates, listed below, it was successful in effecting significant and rapid reforms. This first effort provided only for: The original ten articles of the 1864 treaty have been expanded to the current 64 articles. This lengthy treaty protects soldiers that are hors de combat (out of

4819-422: The league’s ability to counter what he saw as Swiss intransigence. In 1923, the Committee adopted a change in its policy regarding the selection of new members. Until then, only citizens from the city of Geneva could serve in the committee. This limitation was expanded to include Swiss citizens. As a direct consequence of World War I, an additional protocol to the Geneva Convention was adopted in 1925 which outlawed

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4898-420: The notices of receipt for these parcels were often signed by other inmates, the ICRC managed to register the identities of about 105,000 detainees in the concentration camps and delivered about 1.1 million parcels, primarily to the camps Dachau , Buchenwald , Ravensbrück , and Sachsenhausen . Swiss historian Jean-Claude Favez, who conducted an 8-year review of the Red Cross records, says that even though

4977-452: The only Peace Prize awarded during the main period of war, 1939 to 1945. At the end of the war, the ICRC worked with national Red Cross societies to organize relief assistance to those countries most severely affected. In 1948, the Committee published a report reviewing its war-era activities from 1 September 1939 to 30 June 1947. Since January 1996, the ICRC archive for this period has been open to academic and public research. In December 1948

5056-419: The original intent of his trip and for several days he devoted himself to helping with the treatment and care for the wounded. He succeeded in organizing an overwhelming level of relief assistance by motivating the local population to aid without discrimination. Back in his home in Geneva , he decided to write a book titled A Memory of Solferino which he published with his own money in 1862. He sent copies of

5135-407: The outbreak of World War I , the ICRC found itself confronted with enormous challenges which it could only handle by working closely with the national Red Cross societies. Red Cross nurses from around the world, including the United States and Japan, came to support the medical services of the armed forces of the European countries involved in the war. On 15 October 1914, immediately after the start of

5214-400: The past mistakes and shortcomings of the Red Cross with regard to the victims of the concentration camps. In 2002, an ICRC official outlined some of the lessons the organization has learned from the failure: In an official statement made on 27 January 2005, the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the ICRC stated: Auschwitz also represents the greatest failure in the history of

5293-411: The respective country. When chemical weapons were used in this war for the first time in history, the ICRC vigorously protested against this new type of warfare. Even without having a mandate from the Geneva Conventions, the ICRC tried to ameliorate the suffering of civil populations. In territories that were officially designated as "occupied territories," the ICRC could assist the civilian population on

5372-644: The scope of the Geneva Convention to naval warfare. Shortly before the beginning of the First World War in 1914, 50 years after the foundation of the ICRC and the adoption of the first Geneva Convention, there were already 45 national relief societies throughout the world. The movement had extended itself beyond Europe and North America to Central and South America (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Mexico, Peru, El Salvador, Uruguay, Venezuela), Asia (the Republic of China, Japan, Korea, Siam ), and Africa (South Africa). With

5451-526: The small Italian town of Solferino on the evening of 24 June, he witnessed the aftermath of the Battle of Solferino , an engagement in the Second Italian War of Independence . In a single day, about 40,000 soldiers on both sides died or were left wounded on the field. Henry Dunant was shocked by the terrible aftermath of the battle, the suffering of the wounded soldiers, and the near-total lack of medical attendance and basic care. He completely abandoned

5530-532: The small Swiss health resort of Heiden . Only two months earlier his long-standing adversary Gustave Moynier had also died, leaving a mark in the history of the committee as its longest-serving President ever. In 1906, the 1864 Geneva Convention was revised for the first time. One year later, the Hague Convention X , adopted at the Second International Peace Conference in The Hague , extended

5609-425: The status of protected persons . Lawful combatants hors de combat receive prisoner of war (POW) status and cannot be prosecuted for simply partaking in hostilities. Unlawful combatants hors de combat do not receive the same privilege and are subject to trial and punishment (which may include capital punishment if the detaining power has such a punishment for the crimes they have committed). Protocol I to

5688-533: The task of repatriation was handed over to the newly founded League of Nations , which appointed the Norwegian diplomat and scientist Fridtjof Nansen as its "High Commissioner for Repatriation of the War Prisoners". His legal mandate was later extended to support and care for war refugees and displaced persons when his office became that of the League of Nations " High Commissioner for Refugees ". Nansen, who invented

5767-624: The third Convention because it came later chronologically than the Hague Convention. Reacting to the experience of World War II, the Fourth Geneva Convention , a new Convention "relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War," was established. Also, the additional protocols of 8 June 1977 were intended to make the conventions apply to internal conflicts such as civil wars. Today,

5846-518: The three volumes of the "Report of the International Committee of the Red Cross on its activities during the second world war (September 1, 1939 – June 30, 1947)" written by the International Committee of the Red Cross itself. The report can be read online. The legal basis of the work of the ICRC during World War II was the Geneva Conventions (1929) revision, as well as the Convention relating to

5925-543: The treatment and care for the wounded and prisoners of war began when relief activist Henry Dunant witnessed the Battle of Solferino in 1859, fought between French- Piedmontese and Austrian armies in Northern Italy. The subsequent suffering of 40,000 wounded soldiers left on the field due to lack of facilities, personnel, and truces to give them medical aid moved Dunant into action. Upon return to Geneva , Dunant published his account Un Souvenir de Solferino . He urged

6004-467: The use of suffocating or poisonous gases and biological agents as weapons. Four years later, the original Convention was revised and the second Geneva Convention "relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War" was established. The events of World War I and the respective activities of the ICRC significantly increased the reputation and authority of the Committee among the international community and led to an extension of its competencies. As early as in 1934,

6083-406: The war, the ICRC set up its International Prisoners-of-War ( POW ) Agency, which had about 1,200 mostly volunteer staff members by the end of 1914. By the end of the war, the Agency had transferred about 20 million letters and messages, 1.9 million parcels, and about 18 million Swiss francs in monetary donations to POWs of all affected countries. Furthermore, due to the intervention of

6162-507: Was awarded in 1901, the Norwegian Nobel Committee opted to give it jointly to Henry Dunant and Frédéric Passy , a leading international pacifist. More significant than the honour of the prize itself, the official congratulation from the International Committee of the Red Cross marked the overdue rehabilitation of Henry Dunant and represented a tribute to his key role in the formation of the Red Cross. Dunant died nine years later in

6241-495: Was no public condemnation of treatment in concentration camps, and a proposed 1942 appeal on the conduct of hostilities was abandoned. In addition, the ICRC failed to develop a response to reliable information about the extermination camps and the mass killing of European Jews. This is still considered the greatest failure of the ICRC in its history. After November 1943, the ICRC achieved permission to send parcels to concentration camp detainees with known names and locations. Because

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