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The Fundamental Principles of the Red Cross

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 January 2010

Jean Pictet
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Extract

The Twentieth International Red Cross Conference, meeting in Vienna in 1965, proclaimed the “fundamental principles upon which Red Cross action is based”. Since that time, at every Conference, the representatives of the Red Cross world rise to their feet to hear the solemn reading of those principles.

The principles, however, have not yet been the subject of any commentary. The fact is that the book “Les principes de la Croix-Rouge”, the source of the Vienna text, antedated the official version which, while being close to the model, was not identical with it. The book referred to was indeed a complete work, of a somewhat scientific character, and not a terse commentary designed to serve the general public.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Review of the Red Cross (1961 - 1997) , Volume 19 , Issue 210 , June 1979 , pp. 130 - 149
Copyright
Copyright © International Committee of the Red Cross 1979

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References

page 130 note 1 Pictet, Jean: Red Cross Principles, Geneva, 1956 Google Scholar. (Translated from the French, Les principes de la Croix Rouge, Geneva, 1955).Google Scholar

page 130 note 2 The author would like to thank all those who have been of assistance to him with their advice, and in particular Mr. Jean Pascalis, Deputy Secretary General of the Swiss Red Cross, who rendered invaluable service to him.

page 131 note 1 Tansley, Donald: Final Report: An Agenda for Red Cross, Geneva, 1975 Google Scholar. This document and its annexes contain an important sum of facts and experience to which I shall refer a number of times as the “Tansley Report”.

page 132 note 1 First Geneva Convention, 1949, Article 44 and Protocol I, 1977, Article 81.

page 132 note 2 In the interest of brevity, this will hereafter be referred to as “the Proclamation”.

It was first read at the Council of Delegates of the International Red Cross at Prague in 1961.

page 133 note 1 Hereafter referred to as the ICRC.

page 135 note 1 To this end, I shall on occasion gather under a separate heading some elementary philosophical considerations for those who wish to study these matters more profoundly. Readers with little time at their disposal may thus leave these matters to one side.

page 137 note 1 The Tansley Report states that out of 23 National Societies studied, four did not meet the conditions for recognition and that there were grave doubts about two or three of the others.

page 137 note 2 Twenty-second Conference, Teheran, 1973, Resolution VI. In addition, the League Statutes provide, in certain cases, for suspension of a member Society.

page 138 note 1 Strong in action, gentle in method.

page 138 note 2 Manuel de la Croix-Rouge internationale, seventh edition, page 250.Google Scholar

page 139 note 1 Maxence van der Meersch.

page 145 note 1 Pictet, Jean: Red Cross Principles.Google Scholar

page 145 note 2 This triple mandate was reaffirmed, in the same language, by the Twenty-third International Red Cross Conference at Bucharest in 1977 (Resolution I, entitled “The Red Cross Mission.”).

page 147 note 1 The Twenty-third International Red Cross Conference, in Resolution I (“The Red Cross Mission”) emphasized the extreme importance of the National Societies' medico-social activities in preventing disease, promoting health and encouraging among their members a sense of social responsibility and the giving of voluntary service.