International Committee of the Red Cross
- LAST REVIEWED: 26 June 2019
- LAST MODIFIED: 26 June 2019
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199796953-0183
- LAST REVIEWED: 26 June 2019
- LAST MODIFIED: 26 June 2019
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199796953-0183
Introduction
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is the founding agency of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, this latter network sometimes referred to as the International Red Cross. The ICRC was officially organized in 1863 with a mission of encouraging help to the wounded in international war. It broadened its concern over time in a pragmatic response to human need, but is usually linked to war or other political violence. Its evolving focus on victims included not just the wounded but prisoners, civilians, refugees, those affected by certain means and methods of violence (e.g., poisonous and asphyxiating gases), missing persons, those in need of prosthetic services, the relatives of the detained, and migrants (defined broadly). Its focus also evolved in terms of situations: from international war to internal war, to internal troubles or tensions, to instability in vulnerable societies, to continuing need for especially water and sanitary services in post conflict societies, and to major cases of urban violence. First organized as a communications and support center for National Red Cross (and eventually Red Crescent) Societies, these now numbering some 190, it became an actor in the field itself. It recognizes but does not control these National RC Societies. Each operational unit of the RC network is legally independent. RC actors are linked by commitment to certain principles such as humanity, neutrality, impartiality, independence, and universality. The ICRC operates ultimately according to its own statutes as a Swiss civil society organization. Its governing board is comprised of only Swiss nationals, and this mono-nationality is widely seen as promoting its neutrality, the Swiss state being pledged to permanent neutrality. Mono-nationality also eliminates national competition in appointment to, and decisions by, the governing board. Its president, in the contemporary era drawn from past officials of the Swiss state with experience in foreign affairs, normally has great influence within the organization. The governing board (the ICRC Assembly) is made up of unpaid volunteers and only meets periodically. There is a director general and supporting professional staff for management of daily affairs. The staff is multinational. By tradition the ICRC plays a prominent role in the development of the international law of armed conflict (aka international humanitarian law) such as the 1949 Geneva Conventions for Victims of War and Additional Protocols. Much law in this domain is now developed by courts and national documents, sometimes adding to customary international law, rather than in diplomatic conferences called by Switzerland. The ICRC prioritizes help to victims in the field and usually engages in quiet diplomacy and thus avoids public judgments about precise violation of this law, in order to facilitate its access to victims.
ICRC Publications
The organization has made available a vast amount of information about itself, the Red Cross (RC) network, and international humanitarian law. See the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) website. The publications listed in this bibliography are mostly independent sources (as best that can be determined), but with a few sources authorized or published by the organization when they fill a void or are especially informative.
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Article
- Act of State Doctrine
- Africa and Intellectual Property Rights for Plant Varietie...
- African Approaches to International Law
- African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights and the Af...
- Africa’s International Intellectual Property Law Regimes
- Africa’s International Investment Law Regimes
- Agreements, Bilateral and Regional Trade
- Agreements, Multilateral Environmental
- Aliens
- Applicable Law in Investment Agreements
- Archipelagic States
- Arctic Region
- Armed Opposition Groups
- Aut Dedere Aut Judicare
- Balance of Power
- Bandung Conference, The
- Boundaries
- British Mandate of Palestine and International Law, The
- Children's Rights
- China, Judicial Application of International Law in
- China, Law of the Sea in
- Civil Service, International
- Civil-Military Relations
- Codification
- Cold War International Law
- Collective Security
- Command Responsibility
- Common Heritage of Mankind
- Complementarity Principle
- Compliance in International Law
- Conspiracy/Joint Criminal Enterprise
- Constitutional Law, International
- Consular Relations
- Contemporary Catholic Approaches
- Continental Shelf, Idea and Limits of the
- Cooperation in Criminal Matters, Cross-Border
- Countermeasures
- Courts, International
- Crimes against Humanity
- Criminal Law, International
- Cultural Rights
- Cyber Espionage
- Cyber Warfare
- Debt, Sovereign
- Decolonization in International Law
- Democracy
- Development Law, International
- Disarmament in International Law
- Discrimination
- Disputes, Peaceful Settlement of
- Drugs, International Regulation, and Criminal Liability
- Early 19th Century, 1789-1870
- Ecological Restoration and International Law
- Economic Law, International
- Effectiveness and Evolution in Treaty Interpretation
- Enforced Disappearances in International Law
- Enforcement of Human Rights
- Environmental Compliance Mechanisms
- Environmental Institutions, International
- Environmental Law, International
- Estoppel
- European Arrest Warrant
- Exclusive Economic Zone
- Extraterritorial Application of Human Rights Treaties
- Fascism and International Law
- Feminist Approaches to International Law
- Financial Law, International
- Forceful Intervention for Protection of Human Rights in Af...
- Foreign Investment
- Fragmentation
- Freedom of Expression
- French Revolution
- Gender and International Law, Theoretical and Methodologic...
- Gender and International Security
- General Customary Law
- General Principles of Law
- Genocide
- Georgia and International Law
- Grotius, Hugo
- Habeas Corpus
- Hijaz and International Law, The
- History of International Law, 1550–1700
- Hostilities, Direct Participation in
- Human Rights
- Human Rights and Regional Protection, Relativism and Unive...
- Human Rights, China's Practices in
- Human Rights, European Court of
- Human Rights, Foundations of
- Human Rights Law, History of
- Human Trafficking
- Hybrid International Criminal Tribunals
- Immunities
- Immunity, Sovereign
- in Latin America and the Caribbean, International Legal Pr...
- Indigenous Peoples
- Individual Criminal Responsibility
- Institutional Law
- Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and Inte...
- International and Non-International Armed Conflict, Detent...
- International Committee of the Red Cross
- International Community
- International Court of Justice
- International Criminal Court, The
- International Criminal Law, Complicity in
- International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR)
- International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia ...
- International Fisheries Law
- International Humanitarian Law
- International Humanitarian Law, China and
- International Humanitarian Law, Targeting in
- International Intellectual Property Law, China and
- International Investment Agreements, Fair and Equitable Tr...
- International Investment Arbitration
- International Investment Law, China and
- International Investment Law, Expropriation in
- International Law, Aggression in
- International Law, Amnesty and
- International Law and Economic Development
- International Law, Anthropology and
- International Law, Big Data and
- International Law, Climate Change and
- International Law, Derogations and Reservations in
- International Law, Dispute Settlement in
- International Law, Ecofeminism and
- International Law, Economic Analysis and
- International Law, Espionage in
- International Law, Hegemony in
- International Law in Cyberspace, China and
- International Law in Greek
- International Law in Italian
- International Law in Northeast Asia
- International Law in Portuguese
- International Law in Turkish
- International Law, Legitimacy in
- International Law, Marxist Approaches to
- International Law, Military Intervention in
- International Law, Money Laundering in
- International Law, Monism and Dualism in
- International Law, Peacekeeping in
- International Law, Proportionality in
- International Law, Reasonableness in
- International Law, Recognition in
- International Law, Self-Determination in
- International Law, State Responsibility in
- International Law, State Succession in
- International Law, the State in
- International Law, The Turkish-Greek Population Exchange a...
- International Law, the Turn to History in
- International Law, The United States and
- International Law, Trade and Development in
- International Law, Unequal Treaties in
- International Law, Use of Force in
- International Legal Personality
- International Regulation of the Internet
- International Relations Study in China, International Law ...
- International Rule of Law, An
- International Territorial Administration
- International Trade and Human Rights
- Intervention, Humanitarian
- Investment Protection Treaties
- Investor-State Conciliation and Mediation
- Iran and International Law
- Iraq War, Britain and the
- Islamic Cooperation, International Law and the Organizatio...
- Islamic International Law
- Islamic Law and Human Rights
- Islands
- Jerusalem
- Jurisdiction
- Jurisprudence (Judicial Law-Making)
- Jus Cogens
- Just War
- Landlocked Countries and the Law of the Sea
- Law of the Sea
- Law of Treaties, The
- Law-Making by Non-State Actors
- League of Nations, The
- Lebanon, Special Tribunal for
- Legal Pluralism
- Legal Status of Military Forces Abroad
- Liability for International Environmental Harm
- Liberation and Resistance Movements
- Mandates in International Law
- Maritime Delimitation
- Martens Clause
- Medieval International Law
- Mens Rea, International Crimes
- Middle East Boundaries and State Formation
- Migration
- Military Necessity
- Military Occupation
- Minorities
- Modes of Participation
- Most-Favored-Nation Clauses
- Multinational Corporations in International Law
- Nationality and Statelessness
- Natural Law
- Neutrality
- New Approaches to International Law
- New Haven School of International Law, The
- Non liquet
- Noninternational Armed Conflict (“Civil War”)
- Nonstate Actors
- Nuclear Non-Proliferation
- Nuremberg Trials
- Organizations, International
- Pacifism in International Law
- Palestine (and the Israel Question)
- Peace Treaties
- Piracy
- Political Science, International Law and
- Positivism
- Private Military and Security Companies
- Protection, Diplomatic
- Public Interest, Human Rights, and Foreign Investment
- Queering International Law
- Rational Choice Theory
- Recognition of Foreign Penal Judgments
- Refugee Law, China and
- Refugees
- Rendition, Extraterritorial Abduction, and Extraordinary R...
- Reparations
- Russian Approaches to International Law
- Sanctions, International
- Sanctions, International
- Secession
- Self-Defense
- Slavery
- Soft Law
- Space Law
- Spanish School of International Law (c. 16th and 17th Cent...
- Sports Law, International
- State of Necessity
- Superior Orders
- Taba Arbitration, The
- Teaching International Law
- Territorial Title
- Terrorism
- The 1948 Arab-Israeli Conflict and International Law
- The Ottoman Empire and International Law
- Theory, Critical International Legal
- Tibet
- Tokyo Trials, The
- Torture
- Transnational Constitutionalism, Africa and
- Transnational Corruption
- Treaty Interpretation
- Ukrainian Approaches
- UN Partition Plan for Palestine and International Law, The
- UN Security Council, Women and the
- Underwater Cultural Heritage
- Unilateral Acts
- United Nations and its Principal Organs, The
- Universal Jurisdiction
- Uti Possidetis Iuris
- Vatican and the Holy See
- Victims’ Rights, International Criminal Law, and Proceedin...
- War Crimes
- Watercourses, International
- Western Sahara
- World Trade Organization Law, China and