The composition of the International Committee of the Red Cross

Abstract

“I Know of no part of jurisprudence or of the humanities to which the institution calling itself the Geneva Committee can be connected”, declared the renowned Russian jurist Fiodor Fiodorovitch de Martens, legal adviser to the Imperial Russian Government, at the Fourth International Conference of Red Cross Societies held in Karlsruhe in September 1887.No wonder he was puzzled, for although the International Committee is an international institution by reason of its activities and duties, its composition is still that of a private association under Swiss law.