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Neutrality as a Fundamental Principle of the Red Gross

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 January 2010

Hans Haug
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Extract

The word “neutral” comes from the Latin ne-uter and means: neither one thing nor the other. An institution or a movement is neutral when it refrains from participating in a conflict or altercation and abstains from any interference. Refraining from participation and abstaining from interference can be for various reasons: it may be a question of self-preservation and self-assertion, of the judgement that good and bad, true and false are to be found on both sides, of holding back in the interests of a higher purpose or a special task. Neutrality may however have its origin in indifference, fear and cowardice. Neutrality in itself is therefore not a virtue.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Review of the Red Cross (1961 - 1997) , Volume 36 , Issue 315 , December 1996 , pp. 627 - 630
Copyright
Copyright © International Committee of the Red Cross 1996

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Footnotes

1

Hans Haug, Humanity for All: The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, Henry Dunant Institute/Paul Haupt Publishers, Berne/Stuttgart/Vienna, 1993, pp. 461–464. Footnotes omitted.