The ICRC and International Humanitarian Issues

Abstract

I am glad to have the opportunity to address such a gathering of eminent personalities concerned with the increasingly grave humanitarian problems of our time.The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has, for the last 120 years, served the cause of humanity in a world torn by conflicts.In 1864, a year after the ICRC was founded, the Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded in Armies in the Field, the first multilateral humanitarian law treaty, established a legal basis for ICRC activities and brought about the recognition of the Red Cross movement by the States.