ICRC

The ICRC helps people affected by armed conflict and other violence.

The International Committee of the Red Cross was founded in Geneva in 1863, after the Swiss businessman Henry Dunant witnessed the aftermath of the Battle of Solferino and campaigned for a neutral body that could care for wounded soldiers of any nationality. The following year, twelve states adopted the first Geneva Convention at his urging.

The ICRC is a private association under Swiss law, but its mandate is drawn from international humanitarian law itself — the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocols give it specific rights and duties in armed conflict, including the right to visit prisoners of war and civilian detainees, to run the Central Tracing Agency for people separated by conflict, and to remind parties to a conflict of the rules they are legally bound to respect.

In practice, that means ICRC delegates are often present in places other organisations cannot reach: front-line hospitals, prisons, occupied territories and negotiated corridors between belligerents. Its strict adherence to neutrality, impartiality and independence is what keeps those doors open. The ICRC has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize three times, in 1917, 1944 and (jointly with the League of Red Cross Societies) 1963.