HISTORY OF RED CROSS FROM THE START

 

HISTORY OF RED CROSS

In 1859, Henry Dunant the Switzerland businessman travelling in Italy, witnessed the grim aftermath of a battle of Solferino. In this account of what he seen entitled “A Memory of Solferino”. He put toward two proposals aimed at improving assistance to war victims;

-         To set up in peacetime, in every country, groups of volunteers ready to take care of casualties in wartime;

-         To get countries to agree to the idea of protecting aid workers and the wounded on the battlefield.

The first proposal led to the establishment of the National Red Cross and Red Crescent      Societies, of which there are 191 recognized by the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. The second proposal set the stage for the drafting of the four Geneva Conventions of 1949, which are today accepted by all states.

 

The adoption of a single distinctive sign that would confer protection on army medical services, volunteer aid workers and victims of armed conflict was one of the main objectives of the committee studying how Dunant’s proposals could be put into action. This committee was later to become the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The sign – or emblem as it eventually called – had to be simple, identifiable from a distance, known to everyone and identical for friend and foe alike.

 

A diplomatic conference that met in Geneva in 1864 adopted a red cross on the white background, the colours of the Swiss Flag in reverse, in honour of Dunant, a Swiss citizen. However, during the 1876-1878 war between Russia and Ottoman Empire (today’s Turkey), the Ottoman Empire decleared that it would use Red Crescent instead of red cross as its emblem, although it agreed to respect the red cross used by the other side. The Red Crescent was recognized by a diplomatic conference in1929.

Finally, in 2005 a diplomatic conference recognized the red crystal as a distinctive emblem alongside the red cross and red crescent, to enable National Societies that did not wish to use either of recognized emblems to be recognized as full members of the Movement.