Carlo von Flüe
The Work of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
Contents:
1. GENERAL INTRODUCTION
2. THE WORK OF THE ICRC
3. PREVENTIVE ACTIVITIES
4. OPERATIONAL ACTIVITIES
5. PARTNERS OF THE ICRC
6. THE IMPORTANCE OF ETHICAL GUIDELINES
7. ICRC IS EVOLVING
See elsewhere: Author's Biography (appendix
C)
1. General introduction
The ICRC is a humanitarian and independent organisation
working on an international level: its action takes place in situations of armed
conflicts and in other situations of internal violence.
Part of the International Movement of the Red Cross and Red
Crescent, the ICRC is its founding body, the other components being the National
Societies of Red Cross or Red Crescent around the world (175 in 1997) and their
International Federation, which maintains its headquarters in Geneva.
The Cross and the Crescent of the emblem have, incidentally,
the same value. Each one of these components is independent and no hierarchical
relation exists between them. Nevertheless, each components sees its role
defined in the Statutes of the International Movement of the Red Cross and Red
Crescent.
We can summarise by saying that the ICRC is responsible for
the co-ordination of all the activities of the Movement in times of war, the
International Federation has a co-ordinating responsibility in natural and
technological catastrophes and in development situations. National Societies can
conduct activities in all these situations both on a national and an
international level.
Regular meetings between the different components of the
International Movement take place every two years and are called Council of
Delegates and every four years, provided that there are no problem, an
International Conference reunites the different components of the Movement with
the States Parties to the Four Geneva Conventions of 1949.
The activities of the Movement are conducted both in times of
peace and war: a constant effort of co-ordination is needed, and the Agreement
on the organisation of the International activities of the Components of the
International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement of Seville of 1997 is a recent
effort towards a more functional co-operation between the different components.
2. The work of the ICRC
The ICRC has a two fold activity: first as a guardian of
international humanitarian law and secondly as an operational organisation. On
the field level, it maintains two types of delegations, namely, operational and
regional.
As guardian of the law, the ICRC has the duty to promote and
develop international humanitarian law, if necessary and it carries out the
important task of disseminating this body of law as well as the Red Cross and
Red Crescent Fundamental Principles. A recent effort consisted in implementing
the Advisory Services which should help, on a regional level, Governments to
adapt their national legislation to international standards and to adopt rules
and sanctions against violations. Moreover, an important role is played by the
National Societies in taking appropriate measures to protect the emblem. This
task which may appear theoretical remains important, especially nowadays when
humanitarian personnel is so often confronted to situations where they
themselves become targets.
3. Preventive activities
In everyday speech the word "preventive" may have several
meanings. The ICRC is often asked to play a role in the field of prevention. If
we speak of prevention of armed conflicts, it is definitely an activity for
which involvement of the political sphere is essential and therefore such
activities are beyond the capabilities of the ICRC which can, nevertheless, play
an important role in this field.
Experience shows that it is generally too late to begin
spreading awareness once a crisis breaks out, the best protection that can be
offered to potential victims is ensuring respect for fundamental principles of
humanity, for instance, in the conduct of police or military operations.
A Round-table on Preventive Action was held in Copenhagen in
November 1997 on this topic. The ICRC attempted to define what it means for
prevention: a set of measures and activities intended to prevent harmful events
or to limit their adverse consequences in order to prevent abuses from happening
to limit their scope and to contain or keep to a minimum the harmful effects of
abuses.
Among these measures, promotion of norms is of paramount
importance. Promotion of international humanitarian law or human rights law is
an enormous challenge in itself, involving education, training and
awareness-raising. One can say that a faithful implementation of humanitarian
law, may create appropriate preconditions for parties to a conflict to
eventually choose other means than war to solve their problems.
The ICRC invests a great deal of resources and energy in
activities of dissemination of international humanitarian law and fundamental
principles, both in peacetime and in time of war.
For the ICRC prevention includes in particular:
- preventive humanitarian diplomacy
- dissemination of international humanitarian law
- incorporation of international humanitarian law into national legislation
While there is a considerable agreement on education or
awareness programs in peacetime, there is growing uncertainty as to the
effectiveness of these responses in the midst of crisis situations.
4. Operational activities
The ICRC carries out a double activity as two sides of the
same coin, the relief assistance activity can not go without the protection one.
The ICRC works on the basis of international humanitarian
law, which provides the frame for its activities. It can act on a conventional
mandate or on its right of initiative given to it by its Statutes. It main
objective is to work as close as possible and in favour of the victims of war or
other situations of violence, who can be soldiers or combatants no longer taking
an active part in the hostilities (i.e. the sick, the wounded and the prisoners)
and the civilians (i.e. IDP's, refugees, the most vulnerable - women and
children, elderly people - civilian internees etc.).
As you know, the main traditional activities in the field of
protection are the work of what is called the Central Tracing Agency, which
consist in particular, in organising Red Cross message exchanges in co-operation
with the Red Cross and Red Crescent National Societies network, and aims at
establishing links between separated families, prisoners and their families etc.
Other activities of protection deal with the complex problem
of missing persons, visiting detention centres, prisoners and other civilian
internees and monitor the situation of the civilian populations in general.. All
these activities are accompanied by regular reports to the concerned authorities
with a view to help them to improve the situation when necessary.
The ICRC adopts a criteria of confidentiality in this domain
of activity, which should be understood as a tool to allow it to be better
present near the victims.
In the field of relief assistance, the ICRC is active in
emergency situations. Each situation being different, it is important to the
ICRC to take into account the reality of the situation in establishing surveys.
The effects on a more longer term in defining programmes have to be taken in
consideration and this as from the initial phase in establishing the programmes.
It is therefore vital to be aware of all the phases of what the UN language
defines as continuum, and thus despite the fact that the validity of a temporal
and linear approach from emergency to rehabilitation and development is deeply
put in question. It would be far to lengthy to elaborate on this now.
Simply expressed, the ICRC defines its programmes based on
the needs only.
Its relief assistance programmes can go from war-surgery to
more general responses in the field of health, which may include food and
non-food programmes (often better than to give a fish, is to provide fishing
material), water and sanitation and medical programmes, to the shelter one.
In limiting its activities in emergency response, the ICRC
has to make the link with what was before and with what comes after.
5. Partners of the ICRC
The ICRC bases its work on the principle of independence,
which does not mean isolation, and is therefore very much aware of the
importance and the need of co-ordinating humanitarian activities and to work in
"concertation" with other actors, particularly at the field level. Without going
into the complex subject of co-ordination, we can again summarise in saying that
the period when the ICRC was practically alone in carrying out humanitarian
activities in situations of armed conflicts is definitely over, as a large
number of different players are now present in the field.
When we refer to partners, that means for the ICRC primarily
National Societies, and not only the ones coming from the rich countries, but
particularly the ones from the countries facing the problems. These local
partners are very important to facilitate access to the regions and in helping
the ICRC to understand not only the culture but also the situation of a region.
If it is true that they are not always well organised, it is also true that they
are often the only local organised structure in the country, despite the fact
that, in some cases, they are not always complying with the Fundamental
Principles of the Movement, particularly those of neutrality, independence and
impartiality.
So how to act when faced with a National Societies which does
not comply with the fundamental principles? The ICRC may still accept to work
with this National Society ( this approach is valid as well for non officially
recognised Red Cross or Red Crescent Society), but the activity will be
accompanied by a constant effort to push it to comply with the Fundamental
Principles.
National Societies are present in the country before the
conflict, and play therefore an important role in implementing, in advance,
support measures for the civilian populations.
One of the problems arising from the increasing presence of
actors in the field is that the National Societies often being the only existing
structured organisations at a local level may accept to implement programmes
from governmental or intergovernmental organisations. Such programmes may
sometimes be in contradiction with the Fundamental Principles which should
characterise the work of all components of the International Movement. Efforts
are put in keeping the different components of the Movement to work in adherence
with the Fundamental Principles.
6. The importance of ethical guidelines
Initiatives to improve humanitarian response were taken by
the International Movement. We may recall here the Code of Conduct for the
International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and Non-Governmental
Organisations (NGOs) in Disaster Relief sponsored by the Steering Committee for
Humanitarian Response and the ICRC, which is not a manual on how to deliver
relief aid, but rather a text to provide general ethical references with the
purpose to help organisations to avoid basic mistakes in carrying out their
work. To date, more than one hundred major NGOs have signed up the Code. It is
interesting enough to note here that the word neutral does not appear in the
text of the Code, but stresses that humanitarian assistance should be carried
out in an impartial way.
If in the area of emergency relief, ethical guidelines have
been drawn up with a view to maintaining standards of conduct, no similar
principles have yet been laid down for protection activities.
As mentioned by Kate Mackintosh in her Discussion Paper,
International responses to acute crisis: supporting human rights through
protection and assistance, prepared for this Conference, the ICRC took the
initiative in November 1996 to organise a workshop on International Law and
Protection, in order to discuss issues relating in particular to humanitarian
law and human rights law, in an attempt to reach a common definition of the
notion of protection.
The importance of having common concepts to facilitate
communication between humanitarian organisations is important,: this does not
prevent the different organisations from developing their internal reflecting
and adopt other definitions for their internal use.
One of the problems which may affect the work in the field is
that organisations do not understand the same meaning when communicating with
each others - and this has become particularly true nowadays with the presence,
in theatre of operations, of players coming from different backgrounds and
origins - the political, the military and even the economical ones.
The November 1996 meeting proposed two definitions of
protection , one of them being: any action undertaken for the purpose of
preventing, stopping or avoiding the repetition of unlawful acts by those
wielding power. The meting concluded nevertheless that it was too early to adopt
a common definition, but concluded positively on the need to establish a common
ethical framework for this kind of activity. Another workshop aiming at
continuing the debate with a limited number of organisations is scheduled to
take place in Geneva in March 1998.
7. ICRC is evolving
As you may know, in July 1996, the ICRC embarked on a project
aimed at analysing and gaining fresh perspective on a contemporary environment
for humanitarian activity. After more than a year of both internal and external
consultations and deliberations the initial conclusions of this debate known as
"Avenir Project " was submitted to the Assembly, the ICRC's supreme
decision-making body in December 1997.
The ICRC in undertaking this project, is re-stating its
exclusively humanitarian mission, which is "to protect the lives and dignity of
victims of war and internal violence and to forestall the suffering engendered
by such situations".
One important conclusion is the uncertainty which has been
affecting humanitarian action since 1989. Even if States remain the key players
in the international system, the ICRC is particularly concerned at the weakening
of State structures. It is also concerned at the lack of respect for human
dignity in a growing number of contexts, and at the recourse to humanitarian
action as a means of seeking legitimacy when political solutions are not found.
Consequently, the strategic guidelines adopted by the ICRC
consist of:
- restoring independent humanitarian action, knowledge of and respect for
humanitarian law and principles to their status
- bringing humanitarian action close to the victims, looking to the long
term
- strengthening dialogue with all players
- increasing the ICRC's efficiency.
As Françoise Hampson pointed out, it is important to
understand international humanitarian law as a tool for action. A flexible and
pragmatic approach is sometimes needed in order to carry out activities, keeping
in mind that priorities should be given to the response to those who suffer from
the consequences of war and thus, humanitarian response should be defined by the
needs only, and by no means by other factors - either political, military or
economical. If this were not the case, then this type of action could no longer
be defined as humanitarian action. The ICRC undertook a number of initiatives
these last few years with a view to making humanitarian action better
understood. We can mention here the Humanitarian Forum held in Wolfsberg in June
1997 (the next is scheduled in June 1998), as already said, the Round-table on
Preventive Action held in Copenhagen in November 1997, a more systematic
organised exchange with UN agencies, the obtention of the observer statute in
1990 at the General Assembly was of great help. More organised exchanges with
the non-governmental sector and with humanitarian (including the human rights
one) NGOs in particular testify also to that: the workshop mentioned before is
an example, and we have now a yearly meting with NGOs organised jointly with the
Graduate Institute of International Studies (GIIS) in Geneva - in the course of
the last one which took place the 5 December, the topic raised was the security
of field staff. Just this week, a three days meeting was held in Brussels where
the ICRC answered favourably to the Belgian government proposal to jointly
organise a seminar on the relation between humanitarian and military and on the
notion of humanitarian space. At the end of March, together with ECHO, the ICRC
will organise, in Lisbon, a seminar on Humanitarian Action: Perception and
Security.
Moreover the ICRC is more actively contributing to training,
not only for its own staff, but also for training at an academic level. More
organised exchanges with the academic world, i.e. the HELP courses, which since
1986 are organised with a University partner with the aim to better study
principles of intervention in the domain of health and to develop and to
disseminate a common approach for humanitarian organisations, more active
involvement. A more active involvement in the NOHA network in Europe as well as
in a number of universities in North America. More activities in this field
would of course require additional funds and additional staff, something for
which the organisation does not have the necessary resources at present.
