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The Fundamental Principles of the Red Cross and Peace—Significance of the principles for the spirit of peace

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 January 2010

Extract

Since life began on earth, creatures have struggled against creatures. Through all ages, man has groaned under the sword and the yoke. The pages of history are stained with blood. Everywhere we see only slaughter, torture, oppression. Why?

The famous physicist, Albert Einstein, haunted by the spectre of war, asked this question of Sigmund Freud, the famous psychologist, another man of genius.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © International Committee of the Red Cross 1984

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References

page 64 note 1 International Institute of Intellectual Co-operation, League of Nations, 1933 (free translation from a French translation).

page 65 note 1 What follows on the subject of polemology is taken from “Guerre et Paix”, an article by Prof. B.V.A. Röling, Director of the Institute of Polemology, University of Groningen (Netherlands).

page 66 note 1 For further information on the origin and development of the fundamental principles, see: Pictet, J., “Red Cross Principles”, ICRC, 1956 Google Scholar, and “Commentary on the Fundamental Principles of the Red Cross”, Henry Dunant Institute, Geneva, 1979, pp. 39 Google Scholar (reproduced in International Review of the Red Cross, from 0506 1979 to Sept.–Oct. 1980.)Google Scholar

page 68 note 1 Ode to Joy, words by Schiller, paraphrased and put to music by Beethoven in the final movement of his 9th Symphony, adopted by United Nations as world hymn.

page 69 note 1 This use of the word “respect” has sometimes been misunderstood. To respect someone's opinion is to allow him to express it and to examine it objectively. It not necessarily mean to share it. If it is considered to be wrong and dangerous it obviously be challenged. Error is not something to be respected.

page 70 note 1 See Pictet, J., “La Croix-Rouge et la Paix” in Revue internationale de la Croix-Rouge, 03 1951, pp. 191201.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 75 note 1 Lossier, Jean-G.: Les civilisations et le service du prochain, La Colombe, Paris, 1958.Google Scholar

page 76 note 1 It is not our intention here to suggest that races should mix, for doing so makes for the disappearance of ethnic minorities whose diversity is enriching for all.

page 77 note 1 This is not necessarily the case in the East, where there are examples of belonging to two or even more religions.

page 81 note 1 There would be many more in a civil war, which is what makes those conflicts so cruel.

page 84 note 1 This is not the time to enter into the philosophical problem of freedom: is man really free to act, and to what extent are his actions predetermined? No definitive answer has been given to this question. Suffice it to observe that man believes he is free and that society is organized as though he were.