ICRC: History, Roles, Funding, Challenges and Milestones

This report provides a comprehensive overview of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). It begins with a brief history of the organization, tracing its origins and evolution over more than 160 years, highlighting its structure and the three key components of the Red Cross movement. The report then details the core roles of the ICRC, emphasizing its function as a neutral intermediary in armed conflicts, its protection of victims, and its humanitarian actions, including relief, medical assistance, and visits to prisoners of war. The report discusses the funding mechanisms of the ICRC, including sources from the Geneva Conventions, National Red Cross Societies, and various donations, along with the legal framework governing its activities. The report also outlines the challenges faced by the ICRC, including political and financial pressures, and the need to adapt to new forms of conflict. Finally, it highlights significant milestones and the ICRC's ongoing efforts to balance its humanitarian activities and improve its structure in a changing global landscape.

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Brief History of ICRC
The International Red Cross Movement, since the establishment of the "International
Committee on the Rescue of Injured Soldiers" in early 1863, has gone through more than 160
years. The organization has gradually developed and now it has spread all over the world. The
whole movement consists of three parts, namely: 1. A total of 176 (as of the end of 1999)
officially recognized National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (National Red Cross
Societies); 2. Red Cross and Red Crescent International Federation of Federations (referred to as
the International Federation); 3. International Committee of the Red Cross (referred to as the
International Committee). Although the scope and affairs of these three members are different,
they are all moving in the same direction and in accordance with the basic principles of this
movement (United Nations General Assembly 7). Therefore, these institutions are not individual
individuals, but interrelated and holistic organizations. The International Committee was
formerly known as the "International Committee on the Rescue of the Wounded", consisting of
five Geneva citizens including Henry Dunant. It was later renamed the "International Committee
of the Red Cross" and its members were all Swiss nationals. Because it is the founder of the Red
Cross Movement and an advocate of international humanitarian law (the four Geneva
Conventions and two additional protocols), and its own performance, it has been awarded a
number of international missions and privileges. With the development of the doctrine of law,

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the international tasks and privileges granted to it are becoming wider and wider. A small group
of the International Committee from its birth in 1863 has grown into an action organization
today, with work all over the world.
Roles of ICRC
It works with people who have lost their protection as a result of armed conflict or the
actions of their opponents: wounded, prisoners of war, displaced civilians and civilians under
occupation. Its role is to act as a neutral intermediary between victims of rights and responsible
states, and to strengthen the protection of victims of war. Its neutrality is based on the Geneva
Conventions and the basic principles of the Red Cross Movement (especially the three principles
of neutrality, impartiality, and independence); it is not because of its birthplace as the Swiss
state, as it was in its early days (Australian Red Cross 1).
Since the First World War, the scope of the International Commission's work has gradually
expanded. Based on its widely recognized right of initiative, it can serve the situations covered
by the Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols and can victimize most armed
conflicts by taking humanitarian action (Watts 367). The humanitarian action of the International
Commission consists of the following three aspects:
First, relief and medical assistance. In response to the nature of modern armed conflicts and
the inevitable impact on civilians, the International Commission has gradually strengthened its
relief and medical assistance work, and has specifically established relief and medical offices to
be responsible for planning, organization, management and supervision (Watkin 49). The
responsibility of the relief office is to coordinate with international governments, National
Societies, and the United Nations, the European Commission and other international

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organizations to provide victims with living materials such as clothing, food, shelter and
transportation. The medical department's responsibility is to address the medical staff, medicines
and equipment needed to treat the wounded and the sick, as well as the conditions needed to
prevent the disease. In addition, it provides surgical treatment, physical therapy, rehabilitation
treatment, production and assembly of prosthetics and other devices for those paralyzed or
amputees who were injured during the war (Veuthey 89).
Second, visiting prisoners and people arrested for security reasons and detention. Such visits
by representatives of the International Commission, but asking why they were arrested and
detained, were simply a matter of examining the physical and psychological conditions of the
detention, distributing relief if necessary, and ensuring that the detainees could communicate
with their families. Since 1945, the International Commission has visited more than half a
million detainees in more than 100 countries.
In addition, ICRC provides legal assistance (drafting model laws, preparing draft
international treaties, organizing and conducting meetings of experts, initiating, together with the
Swiss Federal Council, an international law-making process); spreads knowledge on IHL in the
armed forces and among the civilian population (holds expert seminars, lectures, scientific and
practical conferences, etc.); monitors violations of international humanitarian law.
Funding and laws governing ICRC
The funding of the International Committee comes from three sources: the parties to the
Geneva Conventions, the National Red Cross Societies, and various donations, funds and
heritage in society. Half of the headquarters budget is provided by the Swiss Federal
Government. The budget for action was obtained through special appeals, totalling several times

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the budget of the headquarters agency and changing greatly each year, because the situation in
which the International Commission acts in accordance with its mandate is constantly changing.
When article 3 was developed in 1949, its scope of regulation included exclusively armed
conflicts of a non-international character. It is now widely recognized that general article 3 must
be respected in all armed conflicts, whether they are international or non-international. Thus,
IHL applies to all persons held in connection with a non-international armed conflict, regardless
of their status and regardless of the status of a party to the conflict in whose power they are
located (Schmitt 448).
General article 3 is a minimum obligation to ensure respect for detainees. However, it
does not regulate all aspects of the treatment of detainees with respect to which this article may
apply. One such aspect is the procedural safeguards for internment, which is a form of
imprisonment for imperative security reasons, the legitimacy of which is recognized by IHL.
From the perspective of the ICRC, in order to develop a regime that is consistent with general
article 3, it is necessary to rely on other sources of law and the rules applicable to this situation.
The internees should be informed of the reasons for their detention and the existing
procedure that would allow them to effectively protect their rights. The reasons for detention
should be assessed by an independent and impartial body with the authority to issue a warrant of
release if the reasons for internment no longer exist. Other requirements for humane treatment,
such as the ability to maintain contact with relatives, must also be respected. Under no
circumstances can people be held in secret detention without acknowledging their detention
(Mack 41).

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The development of principles and special procedural guarantees that would be consistent
with the logic and spirit of Article 3 is a challenge that remains to be addressed. The ICRC dealt
a lot with this issue and made recommendations, which are one of the subjects of the ICRC’s
dialogue with the states on whose territory there is a struggle against non-governmental armed
groups. A positive example of such a dialogue is the positive changes in US legal policy
regarding alleged members of non-governmental groups in their power.
Challenges and Milestones of ICRC
The basis of the ICRC's activities is comprised of regulations of various kinds. It should
be noted that, unlike other international non-governmental organizations, the rights and
obligations of the ICRC are directly defined by international treaties and customs in the
humanitarian field. The ability of ICRC to fulfill most of its task is determined by its ability to
maintain its independence and autonomy. Their operations and activities are often influenced by
attempts at direct political and financial pressure. According to experts, these attempts are aimed
at giving the activities of this humanitarian organization a new meaning that goes beyond the
provisions of the Geneva Conventions (Sassoli 51).
At the same time, it would be politically erroneous (and this would harm the idea and
practice of humanitarian action) if the activities of the Red Cross were built without taking into
account the changes that are characteristic of the transitional state of the entire system of
international relations. An example of this is the events of August 2008, when Georgia carried
out an armed intervention in South Ossetia. At the same time, the idea was initially imposed on
the international community that Georgia was not an aggressor, but a victim (Ryngaert 13).

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And accordingly, humanitarian aid at first went only to Georgia. It took time for a more
robust view of the nature of the conflict to prevail. Speaking about the situation of the ICRC, we
should not forget the fact that this organization itself is part of the international system, which is
in a transitional state. We add to the above that the idea of humanitarian action is also in a
transitional state.
Under these conditions, changes and priorities in the activities of the Red Cross are
undergoing. This has been evident in the past two or three decades in the work of the ICRC,
whose leadership has put a lot of effort into a balanced assessment of its humanitarian activities,
as well as to further improve its structure and its management (Bellal and Stuart 181).
In the first half of the 1980s. The ICRC has done significant research into the content and
form of humanitarian action rates in the new historical context. This focused action is called the
“Study of the Future.”
This initiative was brought to life by a number of important international events. We are
talking, for example, about events such as the imposition of a state of emergency in Poland; a
military clash between Britain and Argentina over the ownership of the Falkland Islands; the war
in Lebanon, as well as numerous conflicts in Africa and Asia. All this required the Red Cross
and Red Crescent organizations efforts to develop dialogue with the governments of many
countries, as well as the intensification of the activities of these organizations in the media. In
parallel with this, the activities of humanitarian organizations themselves were modernized
(Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research 17).

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In the late 1990s. the second stage of the “Study of the Future” campaign began, under
which it was supposed to develop a detailed plan of action. The new leadership of the
International Committee of the Red Cross, which was expressed in the Program for 2003-2006.
The difficulties associated with the development of a new strategy and tactics of
humanitarian action at the beginning of the new XXI century were associated primarily with the
fact that after the end of the Cold War the world was faced with new forms of conflict. This was
especially evident on September 11, 2001, when a terrorist attack was carried out on the
skyscrapers of a shopping center in New York (Wippman 67).
The assertion of new forms of conflict does not mean that the years of the Cold War were
a period of calm political development. During this period, the activities of the Red Cross
organizations were very active. It is enough in this connection to say that in the second half of
the 20th century. the world has witnessed a number of events: genocide in Cambodia and
Rwanda; military conflict in Korea; the Arab-Israeli conflict, which continues to this day; the
tragic events in Hungary in 1956; national liberation wars in Africa and Asia; civil war in
Lebanon, etc. Thousands and thousands of people suffered in these conflicts. And this suffering
would be multiple if not for the humanitarian assistance provided by the Red Cross movement
and numerous humanitarian organizations (European Union 15).
With the end of the Cold War, the well-known balance between the great powers, which
had been established in the postwar period, remained in the past, and this opened up
unprecedented opportunities for new tensions to arise in the international arena, including those
related to the use of military force. This is evidenced by the Gulf War, conflicts in the Balkans
and the Caucasus, bloody clashes in Central and West Africa (Congo, Sierra Leone, Liberia,
Ethiopia, etc.).

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After the tragic events of September 11, 2001, which claimed the lives of approximately
3,000 innocent people, the whole system of international relations underwent significant
changes, in which the fight against terrorism came to the fore. At the same time, terrorism itself,
in turn, underwent significant changes by the beginning of the third millennium. He acquired
what is called a network nature. Moreover, the network is not controlled from a single center. In
modern conditions it is impossible, for example, to clearly define the structure and location of
terrorist organizations. True, often terrorist organizations are identified with some extremist
religious structures (Geneva Call 17).
The emergence of new forms of armed action raised new questions about what
humanitarian action is in modern conditions. No less acute are the issues of the content of
international humanitarian law, which was called into question not so much by virtue of the
actions of non-static actors, but mainly by virtue of actions of states, including those whose
signatures are under the Geneva Conventions.
Under these conditions, the International Committee of the Red Cross faces the task of
finding an adequate answer to new questions of international practice based on the identification
of this same unprecedented practice.
The principles that guide the Red Cross are clear. They, in fact, do not change in time,
because they are rooted in values that no one can challenge. However, only these principles are
not enough to legitimize humanitarian action in the eyes of those to whom it is addressed, in the
judgments of those who support it morally or financially, as well as in the eyes of those who,
through the media, act as a kind of arbiter of the activities of humanitarian organizations (Melzer
17).

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The ICRC has always argued that its legitimacy is determined by the status of a kind of
guardian of the Geneva Conventions, the spirit and letter of which the vast majority of states
have committed to respect and force to respect, if necessary. It was on this legal basis that the
ICRC asserted its right to come to the aid of the victims of the conflict without any
discrimination against the victims. It should be noted that through the real actions of
humanitarian organizations, the emergence of international humanitarian law took place.
Humanitarian law initially relied on 10 articles of the Geneva Convention on Improving
the Fate of Wounded Military Belligerent Armies, which were formulated by the ICRC founders
in August 1864. This convention, in particular, approved the right of wounded people to receive
assistance regardless of nationality.
The Geneva Convention was first applied in 1866 during the Prussian-Austrian War. At
the same time, Prussia, which by then put its signature under the Geneva Convention, acted, as
they say, unilaterally. And only in 1885, during the Serbo-Bulgarian war, the Geneva
Convention was observed by both parties to the military conflict (International Committee of the
Red Cross 1).
Currently, international humanitarian law is based on the four Geneva Conventions,
adopted in 1949, and two Additional Protocols, which entered into force in 1977, as well as
treaties and laws that govern the use of classical weapons, the involvement of children in
hostilities. Let us also say that in the spirit of the Geneva Conventions, International Criminal
Law was also developed. The totality of documents constituting international humanitarian law,
as shown by real political practice, has a significant impact on the settlement processes of
modern armed conflicts.

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It must be said that the protection of internally displaced persons is one of the most
difficult humanitarian activities. The adoption by the ICRC in 1998 of the “Guidelines on
internally displaced persons”, as stated by the ICRC President J. Kellenberger, made an
important contribution to strengthening the International Legal Framework for the Protection of
Internally Displaced Persons (Kellenberger 3). The extent of the ICRC’s activities in this
direction is evidenced by the following data: in 2006, the Committee provided some form of
assistance to approximately 4 million displaced persons in 32 countries. In total, there are 42
million displaced people in the world, including 26 million people — these are displaced people
within their countries.
While the perpetrators of the massacres of people in Srebrynitsa confess to their crimes
and are charged with the crimes in Yugoslavia, another major problem has emerged - the
problem of missing persons. To solve this problem, a specialized ICRC office was created in the
Balkans to deal with this problem. The results of this work are not high. For the missing, as the
facts show, more often than not appear to be inanimate, usually put to death. And this takes this
issue beyond the scope of the ICRC, which, as you know, deals only with living people (DCAF,
Geneva Call).
One of the controversial investigations in this matter was the events in Cyprus in 1975. In
this island state, after a military operation in Turkey, a large number of people went missing.
This subsequently became a stumbling block in the process of negotiations between the Turkish
and Greek communities.
Children and women represent vulnerable people that are target of ICRC. Among the
dangers that await children, especially in wartime, the most obvious is the danger of remaining
an orphan, dying, mutilating, being among internally displaced persons or losing contact with

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their relatives. Children left unattended by adults are at risk of becoming victims of a wide
variety of forms of abuse.
Supporting children in situations of armed conflict is a priority for the ICRC. A range of
ICRC programs are specifically tailored to the needs of children. Moreover, at least 25 articles
on children in the Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocols determine the content of the
Red Cross. For several decades, the ICRC has not extended the principle of impartiality to both
children and women to populations in need of urgent assistance and humanitarian support.
Currently, the situation has changed significantly (Bongard and Jonathan 9)
Conclusion
It can be deduced that the desire to approve innovations in humanitarian activities is not a
race ahead of time, not a desire to block the efforts of competitive organizations. The main thing
to be emphasized here is the clarification of the true mission of the ICRC as an institution, the
specific actions of which always, in all situations, must comply with the principles of
organization. Coordination and cooperation are key to success of ICRC. Intervention in order to
stop such impacts is very difficult. This fully applies to the activities of humanitarian
organizations. Governments are not always active in this matter, which is why thousands of
families find themselves in a situation of uncertainty. Meanwhile, on the issue of missing
persons, efforts for humanitarian reasons should be made no less significant than in matters of
direct and indirect victims of hostilities.

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Works Cited
Australian Red Cross. "The Changing Face of Warfare in the 21st Century." International
Humanitarian Law Magazine. 2012.
http://www.redcross.org.au/files/IHL_Magazine_Issue_1_2012.pdf
Bellal, Annyssa, and Stuart Casey-Malsen. "Enhancing Compliance with International Law by
Armed Non-State Actors." Goettingen Journal of International Law 3 (2011): 175-197.
Bongard , Pascal , and Jonathan Somer. "Monitoring armed non-state actor compliance with
humanitarian norms: a look at international mechanisms and the Geneva Call Deed of
Commitment." International Review of the Red Cross 9 No. 883
DCAF, Geneva Call. "Armed Non-State Actors: Current Trends & Future Challenges." The
Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces. 2011. 36
http://www.dcaf.ch/Publications/Armed-Non-State-Actors-Current-Trends-FutureChallenges
European Union. "European Union Guidelines on promoting compliance with international
humanitarian law (IHL)." Official Journal of the European Union. December 23, 2005.
http://eurlex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:C:2005:327:0004:0007:EN:PDF
Geneva Call. "Humanitarian Engagement of Armed Non-State Actors." Geneva Call. 2010.
http://www.genevacall.org/resources/panels/f-panels/2010_GC_Flyer.pdf
International Committee of the Red Cross. "Discover the ICRC ." www.icrc.org. September
2005. http://www.icrc.org/eng/assets/files/other/icrc_002_0790.pdf
International Committee of the Red Cross. "International humanitarian law: answers to your
questions." ICRC, Geneva, 2004. http://www.icrc.org/eng/assets/files/other/icrc_002_0703.pdf