Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T07:01:59.700Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The International Committee of the Red Cross and political prisoners

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2009

J. D. Armstrong
J. D. Armstrong
Affiliation:
Director of the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Birmingham, England.
Get access

Abstract

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has greatly expanded its activities on behalf of political prisoners since the Second World War. The ICRC's involvement with this issue has resulted from a series of incremental steps, taken over more than a hundred years, and it raises difficult legal, political, and moral questions. Is the ICRC, by operating in this highly sensitive area, endangering its special relationship with governments–a relationship that is vital for the performance of its more traditional functions in wartime? Should the organization be more open or less Swiss? Is it evading fundamental moral issues? The ICRC's success in achieving its objectives also raises questions as to why states have permitted a nongovernmental organization to intervene in their internal affairs and whether the ICRC provides a model that other nongovernmental organizations concerned with human rights might seek to emulate.

Type
Articles
Information
International Organization , Volume 39 , Issue 4 , Autumn 1985 , pp. 615 - 642
Copyright
Copyright © The IO Foundation 1985

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. ICRC Study Dossier (Geneva, 1977), p. 11Google Scholar.

2. Moreillon, J., “The ICRC and the Future,” International Review of the Red Cross, 11–12 1983Google Scholar.

3. For the history of the ICRC before the First World War, see Boisier, Pierre, Histoire du Comité international de la Croix-Rouge (Paris: Plon, 1963)Google Scholar.

4. Such conflicts have occurred with the Burundi, Bangladesh, Haiti, and South Africa societies, amongst others. Forsythe, D. P., Humanitarian Politics: The International Committee of the Red Cross (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1977), pp. 10–20Google Scholar.

5. Ibid., pp. 20–23.

6. An internal inquiry into the Red Cross in 1975 summarized the structural reforms: “Until fairly recently, the International Committee operated very much as a committee. Some of its members were part-time; others were full-time. The Committee decided questions of broad policy as well as matters of day-to-day operations. While the Committee had a staff of paid employees to do much of the work in the field, Committee members themselves were often deeply involved in action situations, in the field and in Geneva. In 1973, a decision was taken to draw a sharp distinction between the governing structure of the institution and its operating structure. The former was embodied in an Assembly, the supreme organ charged with the overall conduct of the institution, its principles and its general policies. The members of the Assembly, chosen by co-optation, were seen as part-time. The Assembly was headed by a President. The responsibility for the day-to-day administration of the institution was placed in the hands of an Executive Council, headed by its own President. Members of the Executive Council, who are named by the Assembly, may come from the Assembly or outside. The management and staff of the institution are responsible for the Executive Council. By these changes operational decisions were thus removed from the Assembly, presumably on the grounds that a body meeting once a month, composed of eminent people with other full-time occupations, was not well equipped to deal with the expanding scope and increasing complexity of daily operating problems. At the same time, steps were taken to reinforce and to accelerate a process of professionalism of the management and staff which was already underway. Particular stress has been placed on more systematic selection and training of delegates to work in the field.“ Tansley, D. D., Final Report: An Agenda for the Red Cross (Geneva, 1975), p. 111Google Scholar.

I was informed that ICRC delegates for missions abroad are chosen as follows: each year there are some 1,500 candidates for positions as delegates. Around 300 of these are received in Genev? for a series of interviews and 100 are selected for one month's training. One-anda-half-year contracts are offered to most of these, after which it is possible to receive a 3–5 year contract and finally a permanent contract. Forsythe, , Humanitarian Politics, pp. 198–206Google Scholar, offers the best discussion by an outsider of the ICRC's organization.

7. For an excellent recent discussion of the laws of war, which pays particular attention to the ICRC's role, see Best, Geoffrey, Humanity in Warfare (London: Methuen, 1983)Google Scholar.

8. On this point see Knitel, H. G., “Le rôle de la Croix-Rouge dans la protection international des droits de rhomme,” Österreichische Zeitschrift für offlentiches Recht 19 (1969), pp. 1–36Google Scholar.

9. Reid, I., The Evolution of the Red Cross, Joint Committee for the Reappraisal of the Red Cross Background Paper no. 2 (Geneva, 1975), p. 10Google Scholar.

10. Moreillon, J., Le Comité international de la Croix-Rouge et la protection des detenus politiques (Lausanne: L'Age d'homme, 1973), p. 43Google Scholar.

11. Role and Activities ofthe Red Cross in Times of War, Document 10a, Sixteenth International Red Cross Conference, ICRC (1938), p. 1Google Scholar.

12. Cited in Durand, A., The International Committee of the Red Cross (Geneva: ICRC, 1981), p. 11Google Scholar.

13. Moreillon, , Le Comité international, pp. 23–24Google Scholar.

14. Role and Activities ofthe Red Cross, pp. 1–2.

15. Quoted in Moreillon, , Le Comité international, p. 36Google Scholar.

16. Ibid., p. 46.

17. Ibid., pp. 47–50.

18. Ibid., p. 58.

19. Commission of Experts for the Examination of the Question of Assistance to Political Detainees (Geneva: ICRC, 1953), p. 2Google Scholar.

20. Ibid., p. 3.

21. Interview with J. Moreillon, Geneva, September 1983.

22. Sandoz, Y., “Le droit d'initiative du Comite international de la Croix-Rouge,” German Year Book of International Law (Berlin) 22 (1979), pp. 354–55Google Scholar.

23. Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts, submitted by the ICRC to the Conference of Government Experts on the Reaffirmation and Development of International Humanitarian Law Applicable in Armed Conflicts, Geneva, 1971, p. 2Google Scholar.

24. Role and Activities of the Red Cross, p. 9.

25. Ibid., pp. 10–12.

26. Commission of Experts, 1953, p. 4.

27. For details of the Conventions see International Committee of the Red Cross, The Geneva Conventions of August 12, 1949 (Geneva, 1981)Google Scholar.

28. Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts, Annex VIII.

29. Portugal eventually decided to ratify this Article. Pilloud, C., Reservations to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 (Geneva: ICRC, 1976), pp. 12–13Google Scholar.

30. Veuthey, M., “The Red Cross and Non-International Conflicts,” extracts from International Review of the Reid Cross (Geneva), 08 1970, p. 4Google Scholar.

31. Commission of Experts, 1953, p. 5.

32. Ibid., pp. 6–7.

33. Commission of Experts for the Study of the Question of the Application of Humanitarian Principles in the Event of Internal Disturbances (Geneva: ICRC, 1955), pp. 2–6Google Scholar.

34. Commission of Experts for the Study of the Question of Aid to the Victims of Internal Conflicts (Geneva: ICRC, 1962), pp. 2, 5, 8Google Scholar.

35. Conference of Red Cross Experts on the Reaffirmation and Development of International Humanitarian Law Applicable in Armed Conflicts (Geneva, 04 1971)Google Scholar, and Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts.

36. Conference of Government Experts on the Reaffirmation and Development of International Humanitarian Law Applicable in Armed Conflicts, 2d. sess. 3 05–3 06 1972 (Geneva, 1972), p. 65Google Scholar.

37. For the ICRC's draft see ICRC Draft Additional Protocols to the Geneva Conventions of August 12, 1949 (Geneva, 06 1973)Google Scholar.

38. Protocols Additional to the Geneva Convention of 12 August, 1949 (Geneva, 1977), p. 91Google Scholar.

39. Kalshoven, F., “International Concern with Human Rights: Can It Be Effective,” German Year Book of International Law (Berlin) 21 (1978), p. 137Google Scholar.

40. This view was expressed in the ICRC's report to the 20th International Conference of the Red Cross on “Protection of Victims of Non-International Conflicts,” Geneva, 1965, p. 3Google Scholar.

41. Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts, p. 79.

42. See Forsythe, D. P., Present Role of the Red Cross in Protection, Joint Committee for the Reappraisal of the Role of the Red Cross, Background Paper no. 1 (1975), p. 34Google Scholar. Also Moreillon, J., “The Fundamental Principles of the Red Cross, Peace and Human Rights,” Sixth Round Table on Current Problems of International Humanitarian Law (San Remo, 1979), pp. 11–12Google Scholar.

43. Forsythe, , Present Role, p. 33Google Scholar. See also Forsythe, , Humanitarian Politics, pp. 59–63Google Scholar.

44. Moreillon, J., “International Solidarity and the Protection of Political Detainees,” International Review of the Red Cross, 05–06 1981, p. 125Google Scholar.

45. These principles were proclaimed at the 20th International Red Cross Conference in 1965.

46. Boissier, L. (a former ICRC president), “The Silence of the ICRC,” Journal de Genève, 19 01 1968Google Scholar.

47. This summary of ICRC doctrine is drawn from Forsythe, , Present Role, p. 32Google Scholar, Moreillon, , The Fundamental Principles, pp. 11–13Google Scholar, and the same author's “International Solidarity,” pp. 124–26; see also The ICRC, the League and the Report on the Reappraisal of the Role of the Red Cross (Geneva, 1979), pp. 23–27Google Scholar.

48. The 1982 figure is given in the ICRC's Annual Report 1982 (Geneva, 1983), p. 74Google Scholar.

49. Interview with J. Moreillon. See also ICRC, Action of the Red Cross against Torture (Geneva, 1981)Google Scholar; Le CICR et la torture, ICRC Document D1401; and “The ICRC and Torture,” International Review of the Red Cross, December 1976.

50. Egeland, J., Humanitarian Initiative against Political “Disappearances“ (Geneva: Henri Dunant Institute, 1982)Google Scholar.

51. Moreillon, J., “The ICRC and the Protection of Political Detainees,” International Review of the Red Cross, 04 1975, p. 173Google Scholar.

52. Ibid., p. 176; the government is not identified.

53. For a discussion of this distinction see Schindler, D., “The ICRC and Human Rights,” International Review of the Red Cross, 01–02 1979Google Scholar.

54. Moreillon, , “The Fundamental Principles,” p. 11Google Scholar.

55. “Protection and Assistance in Situations Not Covered by International Humanitarian Law,” International Review of the Red Cross, July–August 1977. The exceptions in Latin America included Costa Rica and Cuba.

56. A point made by the ICRC president, Alexandre Hay, in his address to the 1981 International Red Cross Conference at Manila.

57. Testuz, M., The ICRC and Its Activities in the World (Geneva: ICRC, 1980)Google Scholar.

58. “Protection and Assistance in Situations Not Covered by International Humanitarian Law,” p. 214.

59. This outline of events in Greece is based on the account in Forsythe, , Humanitarian Politics, pp. 76–84Google Scholar.

60. ICRC, Annual Report 1983 (Geneva, 1984)Google Scholar.

61. Interview with J. Moreillon.

62. Forsythe, , Present Role, p. 36Google Scholar.

63. The results of this research were summarized by the study director, Tansley, D. D., in Final Report: An Agenda for the Red Cross (Geneva, 1975)Google Scholar.

64. Ibid., p. 114.

65. Ibid., p. 112. For a similar criticism see Scoble, H. M. and Wiseberg, L. S., “Human Rights NGO's: Notes towards Comparative Analysis,” Human Rights Journal 9, 4 (1976), p. 631Google Scholar.