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The Emblem of the Red Cross - A Brief History (III)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 January 2010

F. Bugnion
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Extract

From the outset, the central committees of the Societies for Relief to Military Wounded developed the habit of corresponding, either direct or through the International Committee. Was not the originality of the institution precisely that community of interests which united National Societies irrespective of frontiers?

Most of the founders of the earliest relief societies had taken part in the 1863 Geneva Conference which initiated the Red Cross movement. They knew each other personally and naturally kept in touch.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Review of the Red Cross (1961 - 1997) , Volume 17 , Issue 195 , June 1977 , pp. 283 - 298
Copyright
Copyright © International Committee of the Red Cross 1977

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References

1 Fourth International Conference of Red Cross Societies, Karlsruhe, 1887, Compte rendu, p. 90.Google Scholar

2 Organisation générale et Programme de la Croix-Rouge, second edition, Geneva, 1898, pp. 25–26 Google Scholar. These conditions for recognition were reproduced in subsequent editions of Manuel de la Croix-Rouge internationale, until 1942.

3 In the 7th and 8th editions of Manuel de la Croix-Rouge internationale, the conditions for recognition were followed by an explanatory note reading:

These principles, which today are the expression of a tradition, were formulated by the International Committee following the Karlsruhe Conference in 1887 which—confirming a custom which was even then well established—directed the International Committee to notify existing National Societies of the founding of new societies after verifying the bases on which they had been constituted.

Most of these principles have been implicitly confirmed by subsequent International Conference resolutions and have been reproduced unchanged in successive editions of the Manuel.

However, the International Committee of the Red Cross, in view particularly of the complexity of the international legal status of various entities, is obliged to interpret these principles flexibly, taking into account the circumstances peculiar to each case.

See Manuel de le Croix-Rouge internationale, Geneva, ICRC, Paris, League of Red Cross Societies, 7th ed., 1938, pp. 249 and 250, 8th ed., 1942, pp. 255–256.Google Scholar

4 In our opinion it cannot be said that the ICRC recognized the Ottoman Society for Relief to Military Wounded and Sick in 1877 in spite of the fact that that Society was displaying the red crescent. It had notified National Societies of that Society's constitution in 1868; in 1877 it announced the reconstitution of that Society, at the same time expressing reservations on the emblem of the red crescent. The 1877 circular, therefore, was simply a notification, not recognition. There are two reasons for saying this:

(a) in 1877 the ICRC had apparently not been vested with competence to recognize new Societies;

(b) if it is argued nevertheless that recognition had been granted, then it must be admitted that it dated from 1868 when the Ottoman Society was first founded—but at that time the Ottoman Society had laid no claim to any right to use the red crescent.

5 The ICRC notified the Central Committees of National Red Cross Societies of this decision in its circular No. 365 of 17 September 1941.

6 See: Report on the Work of the Preliminary Conference of National Red Cross Societies for the study of the Conventions and of various Problems relative to the Red Cross, Geneva, ICRC, 1947, pp. 133–136.Google Scholar

7 Seventeenth International Red Cross Conference, Stockholm, August 1948, Report, pp. 77–78 and 89–90 Google Scholar; International Red Cross Handbook, pp. 332–333.Google Scholar

8 ICRC records do not keep information on the emblem in a separate file. We had therefore to peruse correspondence exchanged with (or concerning) several National Societies. As research was empirical, the findings should not be considered as exhaustive.

9 Source: ICRC records, file No. CR 00/2.

10 Original English.

11 Sources: ICRC records, files 122 (35), 122 (70), and 122 (140).

12 Source: ICRC records, file No. CR 00/67 II and 043.

13 Source: ICRC records, file No. 122 (171).

14 See p. 286 above.

15 Sources: — ICRC records, file Japanese Red Cross Society 1885–1914 (without reference number);

— A communication from Mr. Gerhard Dumke, Dr. Jur., Landes-gerichtsrat, Oberhausen, dated 20 March 1951 in ICRC records, file No. 043.

16 Source: ICRC records, file No. 121 (179).

17 Source: ICRC records, file No. 121 (32).

18 Source: ICRC records, file No. CR 00/61.

19 Sources: — Bye-laws of the Red Cross of Siam, in Bulletin des Sociétés de la Croix-Rouge, 1920, pp. 771 ff.

— ICRC records, file No. CR 00/53.

— Communication from Mr. Gerhard Dumke, Dr. Jur., Landes-gerichtsrat, Oberhausen, dated 20 March 1951, in ICRC records, file No. 043.

20 Source: ICRC records, file No. CR 00/50c.

21 Circular No. 206 to the Central Committees of the Red Cross, dated 15 October 1921.

22 Ibid.

23 Circular No. 275 to the Central Committees of the Red Cross, dated 3 January 1928.

24 Source: ICRC records, file No. 121 (37).

page 296 note 1 In our conclusions, we have taken into account the analysis and proposals advanced by the Study Group for the Re-appraisal of the Role of the Red Cross. See Tansley, Donald D., Final Report: An Agenda for Red Cross, Geneva, Henry Dunant Institute, 07 1975, pp. 125–127.Google Scholar