Fundamental Principles 2065
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Fundamental Principles 2065 What issues will test the Fundamental Principles in 50 years’ time? Bouncing back How communities in the Philippines are helping to redefi ne the word ‘resilience’ Cases of identity Red Cross Red Crescent A former detainee, visited by the ICRC 40 years ago, searches for the truth Issue 1 . 2015 www.redcross.int Humanity Voluntary Impartiality Facing a service dilemma… what would Neutrality you do? Unity Independence Universality Matters of principle THE MAGAZINE OF THE INTERNATIONAL RED CROSS AND RED CRESCENT MOVEMENT E-RCRC_1.15 irl.indd i 28.04.15 14:14 The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is made up of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and the National Societies. International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies The International Committee of the Red The International Federation of Red Cross National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies Cross is an impartial, neutral and independent and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is the embody the work and principles of the organization whose exclusively humanitarian world’s largest volunteer-based humanitarian International Red Cross and Red Crescent mission is to protect the lives and dignity of network, reaching 150 million people each year Movement in more than 189 countries. National victims of armed confl ict and other situations of through its 189 member National Societies. Societies act as auxiliaries to the public authorities violence and to provide them with assistance. Together, the IFRC acts before, during and of their own countries in the humanitarian fi eld The ICRC also endeavours to prevent suff ering by after disasters and health emergencies to meet and provide a range of services including disaster promoting and strengthening humanitarian law the needs and improve the lives of vulnerable relief, health and social programmes. During and universal humanitarian principles. Established people. It does so with impartiality as to wartime, National Societies assist the aff ected in 1863, the ICRC is at the origin of the Geneva nationality, race, gender, religious beliefs, class civilian population and support the army medical Conventions and the International Red Cross and and political opinions. Guided by Strategy 2020 services where appropriate. Red Crescent Movement. It directs and coordinates — a collective plan of action to tackle the major the international activities conducted by the humanitarian and development challenges of Movement in armed confl icts and other situations this decade — the IFRC is committed to ‘saving of violence. lives and changing minds’. The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is guided by seven Fundamental Principles: humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity and universality. All Red Cross and Red Crescent activities have one central purpose: to help without discrimination those who suff er and thus contribute to peace in the world. E-RCRC_1.15 irl.indd ii 28.04.15 14:14 Guest editorial: The Fundamental Principles at 50 Guiding lights through many dilemmas N 2015, the International Red Cross and After the Second World War, both the ICRC Red Crescent Movement celebrates the and the IFRC sought to set these principles 50th anniversary of the adoption of the down in a form that would be universally IFundamental Principles of the Red Cross accepted. The momentum for decisive and Red Crescent. Since 1965, the Funda- progress came from Jean Pictet’s book mental Principles — humanity, impartiality, Red Cross Principles, published in 1955. Fol- neutrality, independence, voluntary ser- lowing its publication, the ICRC and the vice, unity and universality — have guided IFRC set up a joint commission, which set National Societies, the ICRC and the IFRC down the principles in a declaration con- when they faced diffi cult choices. taining seven articles. This declaration was Photo: IFRC Photo: adopted by the International Conference As the fi rst representative of the ICRC in However, it would be mistaken to believe of the Red Cross in Vienna in 1965. Cambodia after the genocide perpetrated that the Fundamental Principles originated by the Khmer Rouge regime (1975–1979), I with this formal adoption. From the very This declaration of the Fundamental myself was confronted with a delicate situ- outset, the Movement consciously fol- Principles represented a charter for the ation that had to be decided in the light of lowed a number of fundamental principles Movement. On the one hand, it permit- the Fundamental Principles. (To read these dictated by the mission assigned to it and ted the adoption of a universally accepted principles in their entirety, see page 4.) refl ected in the resolutions of the founding statement of the principles that the Move- conference of 1863, which gave birth to the ment had advocated from the start without As we were discussing with the govern- Red Cross. These principles were also re- actually agreeing on their defi nition. On ment in Phnom Penh about putting in place fl ected in article 6 of the original Convention the other, it gave these principles new legal a vast relief action in favour of the genocide for the Amelioration of the Condition of the eff ect, making them a source of duties for survivors, several tens of thousands of refu- Wounded in Armies in the Field of August all the components of the Movement. gees were in eff ect stuck at the border with 1864, which marked also the creation of con- Thailand. They were still inside Cambodia, temporary international humanitarian law. Although states are not directly bound in territory controlled by the Khmer Rouge. by the Fundamental Principles, they are Their situation was dramatic and the ICRC Thereafter, there were numerous refer- required, by virtue of the statutes of the decided to come to their aid. The govern- ences to the fundamental principles. Since International Red Cross and Red Crescent ment of Phnom Penh saw this operation as 1869, in order to be accepted as members Movement, to respect the duty that the a violation of their national sovereignty and of the Movement, new National Societies components of the Movement have to ob- they threatened to expel the ICRC if it didn’t were required to observe the fundamen- serve them. cease the relief operations via Thailand. The tal principles. On the other hand, until the ICRC therefore faced a diffi cult choice that Second World War, the Movement made For the Movement, the principles have it resolved in light of the principle of Impar- little eff ort towards reaching a universally served as an extraordinarily effective tiality. (To read about how the ICRC resolved accepted formulation of those principles. guide during these past 50 years, as dem- this situation, see page 10.) onstrated by our experiences in Cambodia While the Movement was constant in laying in 1979. Since we have had these principles, This example highlights the importance claim to these fundamental principles, it on which we depend, we should do noth- of the Fundamental Principles. Of all the appeared unwilling, or unable, to set them ing to weaken their authority. We should resolutions adopted at International Con- down in a form that would be binding on be ready, however, to continue to analyse ferences of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, all its members. The drawbacks of this situ- the fashion in which they are put into ac- the resolution concerning these principles ation became brutally apparent during the tion and continue to put them into practice is the most important, the one most often Second World War, when references to the in all our actions. referred to and the one that has most fundamental principles failed to prevent strongly contributed to guiding the work of serious abuses from being committed by By François Bugnion the Movement and ensuring its coherence. certain components of the Movement. Member of the International Committee of the Red Cross. ISSUE 1 . 2015 | RED CROSS RED CRESCENT | 1 E-RCRC_1.15 irl.indd 1 28.04.15 14:16 In brief... A deadly start of 2015 for violent incidents, including several Bangui, capital of the Central humanitarians who were attacked while working African Republic, before violence A series of deadly attacks took the to combat the spread of Ebola virus erupted and claimed the life of lives of 11 Movement workers in the disease. her father. Now she lives in a camp fi rst quarter of 2015. All were killed for displaced people. “More than in the act of helping others. Ebola claims Red Cross 50 unaccompanied children live • Two brothers working for the here, some of whom do not know Yemen Red Crescent Society workers lives their own names, let alone those The Ebola virus disease claimed (YRCS) were shot while evacuating of their parents,” says Mathias the life of a Sierra Leone Red Cross wounded people in the southern Yadjemai, who oversees the camp. Society nurse, who was working at port city of Aden on 3 April. He is grateful for the support of the the IFRC Ebola treatment centre in Three days earlier, another YRCS Central African Red Cross Society, Kenema, Sierra Leone, in January. volunteer was shot while coming which has provided blankets, This was the fi rst death of a Red to the aid of the wounded. sleeping mats, plastic buckets, solar Cross volunteer or staff member • Two Syrian Arab Red Crescent lamps and collapsible jerrycans, in Sierra Leone since response (SARC) volunteers were killed the purchased through a revised IFRC operations were launched in April same day while retrieving dead emergency appeal in support of 2014. bodies and preparing shelters for the National Society. Photo: Lene Vendelbo/IFRC A total of 144 national and 19 people fl eeing fi ghting in Idlib, L international staff work at the IFRC’s More than one-third of Malawi was Syria.