The Role of the Red Cross in International Humanitarian Law

The role of ICRC in implementation of IHL in international and National level and the challenges of IHL in the world today.

A brief history of the ICRC.

The formation of the ICRC dates back to the year 1863 where there was need to provide relief and reduce the suffering of those involved in armed conflict and other disasters and development of laws and regulations to govern conducts of those who took part in this armed conflicts as International Humanitarian Law.

Henry Dunant on his way to Italy to meet Napoleon III to discuss the difficulty of doing business in Algeria then under French control witnessed the Battle of Solferino in the small town of Solferino where in one battle night, up to 40000 men died and many more were left wounded with no medical attendance or any kind of relief.

Abandoning his original plan, Dunant started to organize medical attendance and more relief to the wounded in the battle field. He later put up propositions to the major European countries where a committee was formed and it later became the ICRC 1863 , subsequently in August 1864, the committee persuaded governments to adopt the first Geneva Convention, “Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded in Armies in the Field” which was a legally binding treaty that obliged armies to care for wounded without discrimination on the basis on whose side they were on, it also introduced a unified emblem for the medical services which incidentally was a red cross on a white background .

The original role and mandate and the evolution of the role of the ICRC.

The role of the ICRC since its inception has gradually shifted from just being a body tasked with providing relief in times of humanitarian strife to one of a body of immense si...

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...C also enjoys a right of initiative, which is recognized in the Statutes of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. Thus, wherever international humanitarian law does not apply, the ICRC may offer its services to governments without that offer constituting interference in the internal affairs of the State concerned.