THE RED CROSS
The Red Cross post
card with special cancellation of the founder H.Dunant
In February of 1863 in Geneva,
Switzerland, the Société genevoise d'utilité publique [Geneva Public
Welfare Society] set up a committee of five Swiss citizens to look into the
ideas offered by Henri Dunant in his book Un Souvenir de Solferino
- ideas dealing with protection of the sick and wounded during combat. The
committee had as its members: Guillaume Henri Dufour (1787-1875), a general of
the Swiss army and a writer of military tracts who became the committee's
president for its first year and its honorary president thereafter; Gustave
Moynier (1826-1910), a young lawyer and president of the sponsoring Public
Welfare Society, who from this time on devoted his life to Red Cross work;
Louis Appia (1818-1898) and Théodore Maunoir (1806-1869), both medical doctors;
and Henri Dunant himself.
Guided by Moynier's talent for
organization, the committee called an international conference for October of
1863 which, with sixteen nations represented, adopted various pertinent
resolutions and principles, along with an international emblem, and appealed to
all nations to form voluntary units to help wartime sick and wounded. These
units eventually became the National Red Cross Societies, and the Committee of
Five itself eventually became the International
Committee of the Red Cross, with Gustave Moynier as its president
(1864-1910) both before and after it took this name.
As a result of the 1863 Conference,
which hoped to see its Red Cross principles become a part of international law,
an international diplomatic meeting was held at
French
Red Cross booklet 1955
The work of the Red Cross had
been inaugurated. Three other conventions were later added to the first,
extending protection to victims of naval warfare, to prisoners of war, and to
civilians. Revisions of these conventions have been made from time to time, the
most extensive being that of 1949. Although the Red Cross has always given
major service and often accomplished Herculean tasks during time of war, it has
achieved even greater service in its gradual development and operation of
humanitarian programs that serve continuously in both peace and war.
The Red
Cross, a strictly neutral and impartial worldwide organization dedicated to
humanitarian interests in general and to alleviating human suffering in
particular, is composed of three basic elements.
1.
The self-governing National Red Goss
Societies, including the Red Crescent (in Muslim countries) and the Red Lion
and Sun (in
2.
The League of Red Cross Societies, a
coordinating world federation of these societies, was established in 1919 as
the result of proposals made by Henry P. Davison (1867-1922) of the American
Red Cross. The League maintains contacts between the societies; acts as a
clearinghouse for information; assists the societies in setting up new programs
and in improving or expanding old ones; coordinates international disaster
operations. It functions under an executive committee and a board of governors
on which every national society has representation.
3.
The International Committee of the
Red Cross [ICRC], a private, independent group of Swiss citizens chosen by
co-optation (limited to twenty-five in number), acts during war or conflict
whenever intervention by a neutral body is necessary, such action constituting
its special field of activity. As guardian of the Geneva Conventions and of Red
Cross principles, it promotes their acceptance by governments, suggests their
revision, works for further development of international humanitarian law, and
recognizes new Red Cross Societies; it sends its Swiss delegates into
prisoner-of-war camps, supervises repatriation, operates the Central Tracing
Agency, supplies material relief, and the like.
The International Red Cross Conference, which 
met
for the first time in 1867, is the highest legislative body. It is composed of representatives
of the National Societies, the League, the International Committee, and the
governments that have signed the Geneva Conventions. Meeting every four to six
years, it reviews Red Cross activities and the operation of the Conventions in
practice, taking under consideration, whenever necessary, any suggested
revision of the Conventions or the adoption of new ones. (Actual revision and
adoption are matters for a diplomatic conference convened by the Swiss
government in its role as the custodian of the Conventions; texts submitted to
such a diplomatic conference would be prepared by the ICRC with expert
assistance and previously approved by an International Conference of the Red
Cross.) Between Conferences, coordination of the work of the League with that
of the Committee is ensured by the Standing Commission of the International Red
Cross.
The letter was sent
from
The Red Cross, officially known
since 1993 as the International Movement of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, is
an international humanitarian organization with independent affiliates in most
countries of the world. With the aim of voluntary service to others, the Red
Cross was established to provide welfare service for victims of war and to help
carry out the terms of the
The idea
of the Red Cross was born on a battle-field. The dreadful experiences of the
sanguinary battle around Solferino in 
To help
where help is needed, without paying regard to race, religion or nationality,
political or other views, is the thought which is imprinted on the activity of
the Red Cross in the service of humanity all over the world.
The work
of the Red Cross has grown to include aid to refugees, exchanges of sick and
wounded soldiers and disaster relief. Dunant was appalled by the condition of the wounded he
saw near the battlefield of Solferino during the Franco-Prussian War. As a
result he wrote the book Origins of the
Red Cross, suggesting that neutral organizations be established to aid wounded
soldiers in time of war.
Jean Henri Dunant 1828 – 1910
founded the Red Cross. Disturbed by
the lack of care for the wounded during the Battle of Solferino in 1859, Dunant
published an appeal for the formation of volunteer groups devoted to the relief
of suffering caused by war and natural disasters. This led to the organization
of the first Red Cross societies in 1864. For his Red Cross work, and for his
efforts on behalf of disarmament and international arbitration, Dunant was co
winner of the first Nobel Peace Prize in 1901.
The Swiss humanitarian Jean Henri Dunant established and brought recognition
to the Red Cross. The first voluntary relief services that he proposed were
organized in 1863. The present organization is centered on its international
committee, whose work mainly involves providing legal protection and material
assistance to military and civilian victims of both international and internal
wars, and a second body, The League of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
(founded 1919), which aids in disaster relief and promotes cooperation among
the national societies. The International Red Cross comprises these two bodies,
with administrative offices located in
Jean Henri Dunant's life (May 8, 1828-October 30, 1910) is a study in
contrasts. He was born into a wealthy home but died in a hospice; in middle age
he juxtaposed great fame with total obscurity, and success in business with
bankruptcy; in old age he was virtually exiled from the 
The
When he was twenty-six, Dunant entered the
business world as a representative of the Compagnie genevoise des Colonies de
Sétif in
Having served his commercial apprenticeship,
Dunant devised a daring financial scheme, making himself president of the
Financial and Industrial Company of Mons-Gémila Mills in Algeria (eventually
capitalized at 100,000,000 francs) to exploit a large tract of land. Needing
water rights, he resolved to take his plea directly to Emperor Napoleon III.
Undeterred by the fact that Napoleon was in the field directing the French
armies who, with the Italians, were striving to drive the Austrians out of
A Memory has three
themes. The first is that of the battle itself. The second depicts the
battlefield after the fighting - its «chaotic disorder, despair unspeakable,
and misery of every kind» - and tells the main story of the effort to care for
the wounded in the small town of 
Welfare] appointed a committee of five, including
Dunant, to examine the possibility of putting this plan into action. With its
call for an international conference, this committee, in effect, founded the
Red Cross. Dunant, pouring his money and time into the cause, traveled over
most of
Dunant had transformed a personal idea into an
international treaty. But his work was not finished. He approved the efforts to
extend the scope of the Red Cross to cover naval personnel in wartime, and in
peacetime to alleviate the hardships caused by natural catastrophes. In 1866 he
wrote a brochure called the Universal and International Society for the
Revival of the Orient, setting forth a plan to create a neutral colony in 
disputes by courts of arbitration rather than by war. 
The eight years from 1867 to 1875 proved to be a
sharp contrast to those of 1859-1867. In 1867 Dunant was bankrupt. The water
rights had not been granted, the company had been mismanaged in
For the
next twenty years, from 1875 to 1895, Dunant disappeared into solitude. After
brief stays in 
various places, he settled down in Heiden, a small
Swiss village. Here a village teacher named Wilhelm Sonderegger found him in
1890 and informed the world that Dunant was alive, but the world took little
note. Because he was ill, Dunant was moved in 1892 to the hospice at Heiden.
And here, in Room 12, he spent the remaining eighteen years of his life. Not,
however, as an unknown. After 1895 when he was once more rediscovered, the
world heaped prizes and awards upon him.
Despite the prizes and the honors, Dunant did
not move from Room 12. Upon his death, there was no funeral ceremony, no
mourners, no cortege. In accordance with his wishes he was 
carried to his grave «like a dog».
Dunant had not spent any of the prize monies he
had received. He bequeathed some legacies to those who had cared for him in the
village hospital, endowed a «free bed» that was to be available to the sick
among the poorest people in the village, and left the remainder to
philanthropic enterprises in
The American Red Cross, founded in
1881 by Clara Barton, is authorized by congressional charter requiring the
society to assist in wartime and to provide disaster relief. Local offices may
also provide services needed in their communities. The Red Cross is funded
privately. The national headquarters is in
Centenary of the Red Cross, Postcard
with first day cancellation
15.08.1963, Centenary of the Red
Cross, FDC of
