The composition of the International Committee of the Red Cross by Frangois Bugnion "I know of no part of jurisprudence or of the humanities to which the institution calling itself the Geneva Committee can be connected", de- clared 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. The International Committee is the continuation of the Committee of Five appointed by the Geneva Society for Public Welfare on 9 February 1863. This Committee founded the Red Cross and took the initiative of promoting the original Geneva Convention. Ever since, members who resign or die have been replaced by individuals chosen by the remaining members, so there has been no break in the International Committee's already long history. The Committee has called in reinforcements when its workload made this necessary. The number of its members increased from five to seven during the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71; there were sixteen at the end of the First World War and twenty at the end of the Second World War. Since 1945 they have numbered between fifteen and twenty-five. 1 Quatrieme Conference Internationale des Societes de la Croix-Rouge tenue a Carlsruhe du 22 au 27 septembre 1887, Compte rendu, p. 95. 427 INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF THE RED CROSS The members of the Committee have always been chosen from among Swiss citizens. At first this was only a practice, perhaps an accident, but for many years now it has been a statutory prescription. Article 7, para- graph 1, of the ICRC Statutes reads: "The ICRC shall co-opt its members from among Swiss citizens. It shall comprise fifteen to twenty-five members".2 Article 5, paragraph 1, of the Statutes of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, adopted by the Twenty-fifth International Conference of the Red Cross (Geneva, October 1986), also provides that the ICRC "co-opts its members from among Swiss citizens".' On 1 January 1995, the International Committee had twenty-two members, all of whom were Swiss.4 * * * The practice of recruiting the International Committee by co-opting members from among Swiss citizens has guaranteed its neutrality, inde- pendence, and continuity of action. But, because of the international dimension of its attributions, many observers have found the practice anomalous and have put forward proposals to modify it. 2 Article 7, para. 1, of the Statutes of the ICRC, adopted on 21 June 1973 and revised on 6 December 1973, 1 May 1974, 14 September 1977, 29 April 1982 and 20 January 1988. See IRRC, No. 263, March-April 1988, pp. 154-165, at p. 159. The rule that members of the ICRC shall be co-opted from among Swiss citizens did not appear in the Statutes adopted on 15 November 1915 (ICRC archives, files CR 92 and 011) or those adopted on 10 March 1921 (RICR, No. 28, April 1921, pp. 379-380). It was introduced for the first time in the Statutes adopted on 28 August 1930. See Manuel de la Croix-Rouge internationale, 6th ed., Geneva, ICRC, and Paris, League of Red Cross Societies, 1930, pp. 145-148, at p. 147 (Art. 7). 3 Statutes of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, adopted by the Twenty-fifth International Conference of the Red Cross, Geneva, October 1986, Article 5, para. 1, IRRC, No. 256, Jan.-Feb. 1987, pp. 25-59, at p. 32. The rule stating that members of the ICRC shall be co-opted from among Swiss citizens already appeared in the Statutes of the International Red Cross adopted by the Thirteenth International Conference of the Red Cross, The Hague, 23-27 October 1928, Treizieme Conference internationale de la Croix-Rouge, Compte rendu, pp. 182-186, at p. 184. Thus the rule was introduced into the Statutes of the International Red Cross before it appeared in those of the ICRC. 4 The members of the International Committee are listed inside the cover page of every issue of the International Review of the Red Cross. 428 THE COMPOSITION OF THE ICRC The first such proposals came from the International Committee itself. In a communication to the First International Conference of Aid Societies for the Relief of War Wounded, meeting in Paris in 1867, the International Committee stressed the need to bring its precarious situation to an end and to adapt its organization to the needs of the times, while placing it on a permanent footing. In accordance with the principle that all the nations that rallied to the common cause should be represented on the Committee and have a legitimate share in its decisions, and anxious to uphold the principle of equality, the International Committee proposed to stand down in favour of a Conseil superieur de I'oeuvre, whose members would be elected by the various countries' Central Committees in the proportion of one member for each military power. This international representation would be grouped around the Geneva Committee, which would act as its Bureau.5 The Paris Conference merely touched upon this proposal, postponing consideration of it to a subsequent Conference.6 The Second International Conference (Berlin, 1869) confirmed the International Committee in its functions but deferred discussion of its composition to the next Confer- ence, which was due to take place in Vienna in 1871.7 The Geneva Committee, for its part, stood by the plan for its own reform that it had submitted to the Paris Conference, and continued to believe that it would not be truly international until it included represen- tatives of the various nations' Central Committees.8 Optimism was in the air. Nobody imagined that a trivial matter like war could disturb the sweet harmony which apparently reigned among the various countries' aid societies. 5 Reorganization of the International Committee, proposal put forward at the Inter- national Conference, Paris, 26 August 1867, Actes du Comite international de Secours aux Militaires blesses, Geneva, Imprimerie Soullier & Wirth, 1871, pp. 73-75. 6 Conferences Internationales des Societes de Secours aux Blesses militaires des Armees de Terre et de Mer, tenues a Paris en 1867, 2nd ed., Paris, Imprimerie Bailliere & fils, 1867, Part I, pp. 317-320, Part II, pp. 21-22, 151-155, 182-190, 242-247 and 250 ter. 1 Compte rendu des Travaux de la Conference Internationale tenue a Berlin du 22 au 27 avril 1869 par les Delegues des Gouvernements signataires de la Convention de Geneve et des Societes et Associations de Secours aux Militaires blesses et malades, Berlin, Imprimerie J.-F. Starcke, 1869, pp. 18-19, 42-44, 221-228, 254-255 and 261-266. 8 Ninth circular to Central Committees, 21 September 1867, Actes du Comite inter- national de Secours aux Militaires blesses, pp. 79-82; Eleventh circular to the Central Committees, 30 March 1868, ibid., pp. 87-88; Note addressed to the Central Committees, 20 June 1868, ibid., pp. 94-109. 429 INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF THE RED CROSS The Geneva Committee wrote in July 1870: "The essentially international feature of the societies under the aegis of the Red Cross is the spirit that moves them, the spirit of charity that causes them to come to the rescue wherever blood is shed on a battlefield, and to feel as much concern for wounded foreigners as for their own wounded countrymen. The societies constitute a living protest against the savage patriotism that stifles any feeling of pity for a suffering enemy. They are working to pull down barriers condemned by the conscience of our times, barriers that fanaticism and barbarity have raised and still too often strive to maintain among the members of the human family".9 Disillusionment soon set in. A few days later the Franco-Prussian war broke out and the fledgling National Societies were at each other's throats. The Societies of the belligerent States engaged in spreading the most poisonous propaganda, moved by the "savage patriotism" that the Inter- national Committee had just denounced; and even some Societies of neutral countries did not hesitate to enter the fray. So violent were the recriminations and so deep the wounds that it took the International Committee thirteen years of patient effort to persuade the National Societies to meet again. The verdict was conclusive: the National Societies were auxiliaries of their army medical services; they depended on the backing of their na- tional authorities and the support of public opinion; to muster the re- sources they needed for their work, they were obliged to appeal just as much to patriotism as to humanitarian feelings. They were too much a part of national life to be reasonably expected to stand aloof when their countries were fighting for survival. That being so, an International Committee composed of representa- tives of the various nations' Central Committees would certainly be paralysed just when it was most sorely needed. This taught the Committee a lesson it had small chance of forgetting, for the same situation has arisen to a greater or lesser degree in every subsequent conflict up to the present day. Thus, when its composition was 9 "Du double caractere, national et international, des Societes de secours", Bulletin international des Societes de secours aux militaires blesses, No. 4, July 1870, pp. 159- 162, at p. 160. 430 THE COMPOSITION OF THE ICRC again discussed, this time at the Third International Conference of Red Cross Societies (Geneva, September 1884), the International Committee resolutely opposed the suggestions it had itself put forward at the Paris and Berlin Conferences.