Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-11T02:42:49.941Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Birth of an idea: the founding of the International Committee of the Red Cross and of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement: from Solferino to the original Geneva Convention (1859–1864)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 October 2013

François Bugnion
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The trauma of coming face to face with the horrors of a battlefield and witnessing first-hand the abandonment of the war-wounded led Henry Dunant to two ingenious concepts: the creation of permanent volunteer relief societies and the adoption of a treaty to protect wounded soldiers and all who endeavour to come to their aid. On the initiative of Gustave Moynier, a committee was established in Geneva to implement Dunant's proposals. That committee – which soon took the name ‘International Committee of the Red Cross’ (ICRC) – convened two international conferences, the first of which laid the foundation for the future relief societies while the second adopted the initial Geneva Convention. This article considers the circumstances that led to the founding of the ICRC and then to that of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, starting with Solferino and culminating in the adoption of the Geneva Convention.

Keywords

Red CrossICRCHenry DunantGustave MoynierGuillaume-Henri Dufourwar-woundedA Memory of SolferinoGeneva Conventions
Type
Turning points in the history of the ICRC and the Movement
Information
International Review of the Red Cross , Volume 94 , Issue 888: ICRC: 150 years of Humanitarian Action , December 2012 , pp. 1299 - 1338
Copyright
Copyright © International Committee of the Red Cross 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Boissier, Pierre, History of the International Committee of the Red Cross, From Solferino to Tsushima, Henry Dunant Institute, Geneva, 1985Google Scholar (first French edition published in 1963); Brooks, Richard, Solferino 1859: The Battle for Italy's Freedom, Osprey, Oxford, 2009Google Scholar; Bourgerie, Raymond, Magenta et Solferino (1859), Napoléon III et le rêve italien, Éditions Economica, Paris, 1993Google Scholar; Milani, Mino, Le battaglie di Solferino e San Martino, GAM editrice, Rudiano (Brescia), 2008Google Scholar; Pelissier, Pierre, Solférino, 24 juin 1859, Perrin, Paris, 2012Google Scholar; Lt Col. Turnbull, Patrick, Solferino: The Birth of a Nation, Robert Hale, London, 1985Google Scholar; Harold, ColonelWilly, Carmichael, The Campaign of Magenta and Solferino, 1859: The Decisive Conflict for the Unification of Italy, Leonaur (s.l.), 2009Google Scholar (first edition, London/New York, 1907), in particular pp. 127–175.

2 Dr Chenu, J.-C., Statistique médico-chirurgicale de la Campagne d'Italie en 1859 et 1860, Librairie militaire de J. Dumaine, Paris, 1869, Vol. II, pp. 851–853Google Scholar. What made things worse was that the troops had been given new munitions, ogival-cylindrical bullets with a diameter of 11–12 millimetres, which inflicted terrible wounds, far worse than those caused by the spherical bullets previously used.

3 Unopened crates containing 169 tonnes of dressings were sent back to France at the end of the campaign. Guillermand, Jean, ‘Le Service de santé militaire français au XIXe siècle’, in Durand, Roger (ed.), Le creuset de la Croix-Rouge: Actes de voyages d’étude à Solférino, San Martino, Castiglione, Cavriana et Borghetto les 6–8 mai 1983 et les 25–27 mai 1995, Henry Dunant Society and International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum, Geneva, 1997, p. 87Google Scholar.

4 Paris de la Bollardière, Opérations administratives pendant la campagne d'Italie, quoted by Dr J.-C. Chenu, above note 2, Vol. I, p. XVI; P. Boissier, above note 1, p. 22.

5 Dr J.-C. Chenu, above note 2, Vol. I, p. 378.

6 In his writings, Henry Dunant endeavoured to conceal the real motives for his travels in Italy behind humanitarian considerations. For instance, at a conference in the United Kingdom, Dunant claimed that he had gone to Italy because he felt concerned about the fate of war wounded and that he had been guided by the example set by Florence Nightingale. However, Professor Alexis François has shown that Dunant went to Italy in the hope of meeting Emperor Napoleon III with a view to pleading the cause of the Company of the Mons-Djémila Mills, of which he was the chairman. See François, Alexis, Le berceau de la Croix-Rouge, Librairie Jullien, Geneva, and Librairie Édouard Champion, Paris, 1918, pp. 19–23Google Scholar and 70–78; similarly, P. Boissier, above note 1, pp. 7–16. The idea of meeting the Emperor in Italy, where he had assumed command of his troops, was not quite as absurd as it may first seem today. The Crimean War (1854–1856), which turned into endless siege warfare, was still fresh in people's minds. Things were expected go much the same way in Italy, particularly as the Austrians had four impressive fortresses commanding access to Venetia. Moreover, the French army had transported a large supply of siege equipment to northern Italy. Once he had set siege to those fortresses, Napoleon would have been condemned to wait around for weeks on end. He would have had plenty of time to receive visitors. The rapidity with which the fighting came to an end was to upset Dunant's plans, as well as those of the governments and the military command.

7 The Countess de Gasparin, who had taken the initiative of launching a subscription on behalf of those wounded in the Crimean War, sent long excerpts from Dunant's letter to the Journal de Genève, which published them in its edition of 9 July 1859, p. 3. See Dunant, Henry, Mémoires, edited and introduced by Gagnebin, Bernard, Henry Dunant Institute, Geneva, and Éditions L'Age d'Homme, Lausanne, 1971, pp. 39–42Google Scholar; in his Mémoires, Dunant states, erroneously, that the letter was published on 8 July.

8 Henry Dunant, ibid., pp. 36–37. Strangely enough, in A Memory of Solferino, Dunant devoted a few lines to that expedition to Cavriana without mentioning what he had done on behalf of the Austrian doctors. We only know about that from his Mémoires, which were written with an apologetic aim more than thirty years later. At the time of his journey to Cavriana, Dunant could not have known that Baron Larrey, Surgeon-General in the French army, had taken similar steps. See Dr J.-C. Chenu, above note 2, Vol. I, p. 341. He might therefore have genuinely believed that his representations had led to the release of the Austrian doctors. Even before the imperial decision had been taken, sixteen Austrian doctors, who had been part of a convoy of prisoners of war who were being evacuated to the rear and were passing through Castiglione, had been requisitioned to provide medical care for the wounded. Napoleon III ordered that they should be released first. In witnessing those events on the Solferino battlefield, Dunant had discovered the principle of neutrality of medical action that was to be the cornerstone of the original Geneva Convention.

9 H. Dunant, above note 7, pp. 32–47; P. Boissier, above note 1, pp. 17–33; Chaponnière, Corinne, Henry Dunant, La croix d'un homme, Perrin, Paris, 2010, pp. 98–113Google Scholar; Durand, Roger, Henry Dunant, 1828–1910, Humanitarian Geneva, Geneva, 2011, pp. 28–32Google Scholar; A. François, above note 6, pp. 24–39. For a long time the only information on Dunant's activity in Castiglione came from his own account of it. In the ICRC archives Micheline Tripet found four letters from Eugène Margot-Dornier, watchmaker to the French army during the campaign in Italy, that corroborate the report by Dunant. See Tripet, Micheline, ‘La présence de Dunant dans les archives de la Croix-Rouge’, in Durand, Roger (ed.), De l'utopie à la réalité: Actes du colloque Henry Dunant tenu à Genève au Palais de l'Athénée et à la Chapelle de l'Oratoire les 3, 4 et 5 mai 1985, Henry Dunant Society, Geneva, 1988, pp. 42–47Google Scholar. Furthermore, Dunant's testimony met with resounding confirmation in that, on 19 January 1860, Victor Emmanuel, King of Piedmont-Sardinia, conferred the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazare on Henry Dunant and Louis Appia ‘in considerazione di particolari benevolenze’ (in consideration of particular benevolence) (A. François, above note 6, p. 64).

10 Some of Dunant's hagiographers, not to mention some film-makers short of spectacular effects, have thought it appropriate to glorify his role in Solferino and to portray him as a superhero setting off to provide relief for the wounded, at the head of a whole host of volunteers. There is nothing to support that view in Dunant's writings. In fact, it is contradicted by what he actually wrote: ‘One's sense of utter inadequacy in such extraordinary and solemn circumstances is a source of unspeakable anguish’ (A Memory of Solferino, translated from the first French edition published in 1862, The American National Red Cross, Washington D.C., 1939 (original French: Un souvenir de Solférino, Imprimerie Jules-Guillaume Fick, Geneva, 1862), p. 55 (revised translation). That is a far cry from triumphalism!

11 Ibid. To mark the 150th anniversary of the publication of Dunant's book, the Henry Dunant Society and the International Committee of the Red Cross published a facsimile reproduction of the original French edition of 1862, followed by the first complete edition in English (1939), together with a historical note by Roger Durand and Philippe Monnier, Henry Dunant Society and International Committee of the Red Cross, Geneva, October 2012. With regard to the genesis of the book, reference should be made to the aforementioned note by Roger Durand and Philippe Monnier: ‘Reworked twenty times … Note on the genesis of A Memory of Solferino and its subsequent editions in French’, pp. XXIII–XLVI. For a literary analysis of A Memory of Solferino, see Bugnion, Francois, ‘Henry Dunant et l'amour de la géométrie’, in Bulletin de la Société Henry Dunant, No. 20, 2000–2002, pp. 1–18Google Scholar.

12 Henry Dunant, above note 10, p. 35.

13 Ibid., p. 47.

14 Ibid., p. 85.

15 Ibid., p. 93.

16 H. Dunant, above note 7, pp. 49–63.

17 Mercanton, Daisy C., Henry Dunant, Essai bio-bibliographique, Henry Dunant Institute, Geneva, and Éditions L'Age d'Homme, Lausanne, 1971, pp. 23–38Google Scholar.

18 A sworn opponent of slavery, Dunant had met Harriet Beecher-Stowe when she was touring Europe. His Mémoires refer to the deep impression made by the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin on his thinking, as her writing had helped to bring about the abolition of a detestable practice (H. Dunant, above note 7, pp. 29–31). Dunant doubtless had that example in mind when he wrote A Memory of Solferino.

19 P. Boissier, above note 1, pp. 40–43; Gagnebin, Bernard, ‘Comment l'Europe accueillit le Souvenir de Solférino’, in Revue internationale de la Croix-Rouge, No. 378, June 1950, pp. 419–429Google Scholar; Pfister, Anne-Marie, ‘A hundred years since the publication of “A Memory of Solferino” ’, in International Review of the Red Cross (hereinafter IRRC), Vol. 2, No. 20, November 1962, pp. 575–580Google Scholar.

20 Lescaze, Bernard, Pauvres et bourgeois à Genève, La Société genevoise d'utilité publique en son temps, 1828–1978, Contribution à l'histoire économique et sociale de Genève, Société genevoise d'utilité publique, Geneva, 1978Google Scholar; de Senarclens, Jean, La Société genevoise d'utilité publique, Creuset des réformes sociales à Genève aux XIXe et XXe siècles, Éditions Slatkine, Geneva, 2003Google Scholar.

21 C. Chaponnière, above note 9, pp. 26–27 and 83–84.

22 de Senarclens, Jean, The Founding of the Red Cross: Gustave Moynier, its Master Builder, Éditions Slatkine, Geneva, 2005Google Scholar; Bugnion, François, Gustave Moynier, 1826–1910, Humanitarian Geneva, Geneva, 2011Google Scholar.

23 Moynier, Gustave, Mes heures de travail, Société générale d'imprimerie, Geneva, 1907, p. 35Google Scholar.

24 G. Moynier, ibid., pp. 55–56. Unfortunately, Dunant left no account of that first meeting, which was to play a decisive role in the future of his proposals. However, a careful reading of the short reference he makes in his Mémoires to that first contact would seem to indicate that it was Moynier who took the initiative (H. Dunant, above note 7, p. 65). That is also the reading of Red Cross historians and of Dunant's principle biographers (P. Boissier, above note 1, pp. 45–48; C. Chaponnière, above note 9, pp. 125–127; R. Durand, above note 9, pp. 35–36).

25 Jean de Senarclens, above note 22, pp. 75–83.

26 Archives of the Geneva Public Welfare Society (Geneva, Palais de l'Athénée), minutes of the Society's General Commission, meeting of 15 December 1862, manuscript, quoted by Jean de Senarclens, above note 22, p. 99.

27 Moynier, Gustave, The Red Cross, its Past and its Future, translated by Cassel, John Furley, Peter Galpin & Co, London, 1883, p. 14Google Scholar.

28 Archives of the Geneva Public Welfare Society (Geneva, Palais de l'Athénée), minutes of the meeting of 9 February1863, manuscript. Those minutes were reproduced, with several stylistic corrections, in Bulletin international des Sociétés de la Croix-Rouge, No. 126, April 1901, pp. 79–80, and in IRRC, No. 24, March 1963, pp. 115–117; Roger Durand, ‘Le “non-événement” du 9 février 1863’, in Bulletin de la Société Henry Dunant, No. 10, 1985–1988, pp. 33–47. The minutes of the meeting of 9 February 1863 of the Geneva Public Welfare Society refer to the creation of a committee of three members. The number ‘three’ was subsequently crossed through and replaced by ‘five’. Appointed commander-in-chief of the federal army when Switzerland plunged into civil war, General Dufour was able to bring the war to a victorious conclusion and to restore the unity of the Confederation in under three weeks, thus preventing any intervention by the Major Powers, which would have turned Switzerland into Europe's battlefield. Moreover, he had conducted operations in such a way as to prepare for the reconciliation of the Confederates. The instructions that he gave to the divisional commanders and to the troops, and which he wrote himself on the eve of his taking office, testify to his humanity and prefigure the Geneva Convention. See Guillaume-Henri Dufour, ‘Recommandations sur la conduite à tenir envers les habitants et les troupes’, 4 November 1847 (excerpts), and ‘Proclamation à l'Armée’, 5 November 1847 (excerpts), quoted in Reverdin, Olivier, La guerre du Sonderbund vue par le Général Dufour, Juin 1847–avril 1848, Éditions du Journal de Genève, Geneva, 1948, pp. 42–44Google Scholar. Furthermore, as a colonel in command of the military school at Thun, Dufour had among his officer cadets the young Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, who was to become Napoleon III. The two men professed their mutual esteem and remained in contact until the former emperor's death in 1873. Dufour's influence probably accounts for the support given by Napoleon III to the plans of the Geneva Committee, despite the opposition of the imperial administration and the army.

29 In the beginning, there was a degree of uncertainty about the name to be given to the International Committee. At its meeting of 20 December 1875, the Geneva Committee adopted the name International Committee of the Red Cross, which appeared on the 31st circular to the Central Committees, dated 10 February 1876, and on all subsequent documents.

30 Although that is not suggested in the minutes of the meeting of 17 February 1863 or in contemporary accounts, there is every reason to think that Dunant, who seemed to be the kingpin of the Committee until he became implicated in the collapse of the Crédit genevois in 1867, met each of his four colleagues individually to prepare for that meeting. Without preparations of that kind, it is difficult to imagine that agreement on such an ambitious programme could have been reached at just one meeting, particularly as the most influential of the participants – General Dufour – doubted whether it would be possible to establish permanent relief societies in peacetime, as is apparent from his letter to Dunant dated 19 October 1862 and his remarks during the debates of the Geneva Public Welfare Society.

31 P. Boissier, above note 1, pp. 131–134; Médecin Général Fabre, Albert (ed.), Histoire de la médecine aux armées, Vol. II, De la Révolution française au conflit mondial de 1914, Éditions Charles Lavauzelle, Paris and Limoges, 1984, pp. 183–209Google Scholar; Mayer, Roger, ‘Le Service de Santé des armées françaises dans la première moitié du XIXe siècle’, in Durand, Roger (ed.), Aux Sources de l'Idée Croix-Rouge, Henry Dunant Society and International Red Cross Museum, Geneva, 1984, pp. 76–86Google Scholar.

32 P. Boissier, above note 1, pp. 128–129; Ferdinando Palasciano, La neutralità dei feriti in tempo di guerra, speech given at the Accademia Pontania in Naples on 28 April 1861, no editor indicated.

33 At the Conference in October 1863, Dr Löffler, chief medical officer of Prussia's Fourth Army Corps and a delegate of Prussia at this conference, pointed out this practice, but without giving any further details. Following that meeting, Dr Brière unearthed four treaties concluded under the Ancien Régime for the protection of field hospitals and medical posts (Secours aux blessés, Communication du Comité international faisant suite au compte rendu de la Conférence internationale de Genève, Imprimerie Fick, Geneva, 1864, pp. 30–33). A few years later, Dr Gurlt listed 291 treaties of that kind, the most recent of which dated from 1800 (Dr Gurlt, E., Zur Geschichte der internationalen und freiwilligen Krankenpflege im Kriege, Verlag F. C. W. Vogel, Leipzig, 1873Google Scholar). The Conference of October 1863 was obviously the starting point for historical research that rescued those precedents from the oblivion into which they had fallen.

34 Inspector-General Lucien Baudens had noted that situation during the Crimean War and had described it in an article published in Revue des Deux Mondes: ‘Une mission médicale à l'Armée d'Orient’, in Revue des Deux Mondes, 27th year, 15 February 1857, pp. 881–882.

35 The Neapolitan doctor Ferdinando Palasciano had correctly analysed the situation in two communications, one of which had been presented at the Accademia Pontania and the other at a medical congress in Lyon; in those publications he advocated recognizing the principle of the neutrality of wounded soldiers (F. Palasciano, above note 32; Ferdinando Palasciano, De la neutralisation des blessés en temps de guerre et de ses conséquences thérapeutiques, paper presented at the meeting held on 1 October 1864 at the Medical Congress in Lyon, Imprimerie d'Aimé Vingtrinier, Lyon, 1864). Nonetheless, Palasciano did not understand – even after the Geneva Convention (the authorship of which he unjustifiably claimed) had been adopted – that recognizing the neutrality of the wounded would be ineffective unless the neutrality of the military medical corps was also recognized.

36 P. Boissier, above note 1, p. 29.

37 Minutes of the meeting of 17 February 1863, English translation published in IRRC, No. 23, February 1963, pp. 63–65; Procès-verbaux des séances du Comité international de la Croix-Rouge, 17 février 1863 – 28 août 1914, edited by Jean-François Pitteloud with the collaboration of Caroline Barnes and Françoise Dubosson, ICRC and Henry Dunant Society, Geneva, 1999, pp. 16–19. The notebook containing the minutes of the first seven meetings of the ICRC was found among Henry Dunant's papers after his death and was given to the ICRC by his nephew, Maurice Dunant, who was also the executor of his will. Those minutes were published by Jean Pictet under the title ‘The foundation of the Red Cross: Some important documents’, in IRRC, No. 23, February 1963, pp. 60–75, and by Jean-François Pitteloud in the aforementioned volume of the minutes of the ICRC, pp. 15–29. The minutes of the first six meetings are in Dunant's handwriting; the minutes of the seventh meeting were written by Moynier. The minutes of the meeting of 17 February 1863 are appended to the present article.

38 IRRC, No. 23, February 1963, p. 64; Procès-verbaux des séances du Comité international de la Croix-Rouge, above note 37, p. 18.

39 IRRC, No. 23, February 1963, p. 65 (revised translation); Procès-verbaux des séances du Comité international de la Croix-Rouge, above note 37, p. 19.

40 Minutes of the meeting of 25 August 1863, English translation published in IRRC, No. 23, February 1963, pp. 69–70; Procès-verbaux des séances du Comité international de la Croix-Rouge, above note 37, pp. 23–24. At the International Welfare Congress in London (1862), Moynier announced that the Geneva Public Welfare Society would be willing to host the next congress in Geneva. See J. de Senarclens, above note 22, p. 82.

41 The circular of 1 September 1863 and the draft concordat were reproduced in Compte rendu de la Conférence internationale réunie à Genève les 26, 27, 28 et 29 octobre 1863 pour étudier les moyens de pourvoir à l'insuffisance du service sanitaire dans les armées en campagne (excerpt from Bulletin No. 24 of the Geneva Public Welfare Society), Imprimerie Jules-Guillaume Fick, Geneva, 1863 (hereinafter: Compte rendu … 1863), pp. 1–2 and 14–16, and in Actes du Comité international de Secours aux Militaires blessés, Imprimerie Soullier et Wirth, Geneva, 1871 (hereinafter: Actes du Comité international, 1871), pp. 1–4.

42 Minutes of the meeting of 25 August 1863, English translation published in IRRC, No. 23, February 1963, pp. 69–70; Procès-verbaux des séances du Comité international de la Croix-Rouge, above note 37, pp. 23–24.

43 One might wonder what interest mid-nineteenth-century military doctors had in statistics. However, at that time, doctors had none of the diagnostic instruments on which their successors rely today. Moreover, this was before the discoveries of Pasteur, meaning that the causes and spread of infection were not understood. Statistics were therefore practically the only basis upon which doctors could determine which treatment offered the best prospects of a cure. The fourth section of the congress therefore addressed the topic of comparative statistics of health and mortality among civilians and the military forces. The Federal Council had invited Gustave Moynier, who was probably the main promoter of the Swiss Statistical Society before becoming its first chairman, to represent the Swiss Confederation at that congress; however, Moynier declined because his wife was about to give birth to their third child.

44 Letters of 13, 15 and 17 September 1863 from Henry Dunant to Gustave Moynier, ICRC Archives, A AF 20/1-3, file ‘Comité international 1863–1880’; H. Dunant, above note 7, pp. 75–78.

45 C. Chaponnière, above note 9, pp. 144–146.

46 Actes du Comité international, 1871, above note 41, pp. 5–6. According to what he wrote to Moynier on 15 September 1863, Dunant had 500 copies of that circular printed and a large number of them were distributed immediately (ICRC Archives, A AF 20/1-3, above note 44).

47 Letters of 4, 12 and 18 October 1863 from Henry Dunant to Gustave Moynier, ICRC Archives, A AF 20/1-3, above note 44; H. Dunant, above note 7, pp. 83–89; C. Chaponnière, above note 9, pp. 153–157. As Dunant's travels in Germany predate the creation of the German Empire, Saxony, Bavaria, the Grand Duchy of Baden, Württemberg, Hesse, etc., were still sovereign states.

48 The ICRC Archives have preserved a note from Dr Maunoir to Gustave Moynier, dated 28 September 1863, which reveals a great deal about his indignation.

49 Minutes of the meeting of 20 October 1863, English translation (revised) published in IRRC, No. 23, February 1963, p. 71; Procès-verbaux des séances du Comité international de la Croix-Rouge, above note 37, pp. 24–25.

50 H. Dunant, above note 7, p. 91.

51 Compte rendu … 1863, above note 41, pp. 16–20; Actes du Comité international, 1871, above note 41, p. 18.

52 Statutes of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, adopted by the Twenty-Fifth International Conference of the Red Cross, meeting in Geneva in October 1986, Article 9, in IRRC, No. 256, January–February 1987, p. 37; Handbook of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, 14th edition, International Committee of the Red Cross and International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Geneva, 2008, p. 527; Perruchoud, Richard, Les résolutions des Conférences internationales de la Croix-Rouge, Henry Dunant Institute, Geneva, 1979Google Scholar, in particular pp. 45–49; François Bugnion, ‘The International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent: challenges, key issues and achievements’, in IRRC, No. 876, December 2009, pp. 675–712, in particular pp. 676–688.

53 Compte rendu … 1863, above note 41, pp. 33–38.

54 Ibid., pp. 57–58.

55 Ibid., pp. 50–55 and 60–70, in particular p. 70. The supreme advantage was that mules were not likely to come up with the ludicrous idea of reporting on the unfathomable incompetence of the Quartermaster-General's Office, which was in charge of the medical service.

56 Ibid., p. 70.

57 Ibid., pp. 112–114.

58 Moynier was later to stress the interdependence between the relief societies and neutral status for the medical services. He wrote of the 1863 Conference: ‘… it regarded the abolition of old customs, and the granting of juridical protection to all sanitary services, as an indispensable condition of success for relief societies. It had reason to fear that if all the personnel as well as material provided by private benevolence were incessantly liable to be appropriated by an enemy and diverted from its proper destination, the most enthusiastic philanthropy would become weary of bringing tribute to this new Danaïdes' vessel’, in Gustave Moynier, The Red Cross, its Past and its Future, above note 27 (revised translation), p. 26.

59 Compte rendu … 1863, above note 41, pp. 147–149; Handbook of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, above note 52, pp. 515–516; Schindler, Dietrich and Toman, Jirí (eds), The Laws of Armed Conflicts: A Collection of Conventions, Resolutions and Other Documents, 4th edition, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Leiden & Boston, 2004, pp. 361–363Google Scholar.

60 Now the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

61 Statutes of the International Red Cross, adopted by the Thirteenth International Conference of the Red Cross meeting in The Hague, October 1928, Treizième Conférence internationale de la Croix-Rouge tenue à La Haye du 23 au 27 octobre 1928, Compte rendu, Imprimerie nationale, The Hague, 1929, pp. 182–186. Those Statutes were revised by the Eighteenth International Conference, which met in Toronto in 1952, and then by the Twenty-Fifth Conference, which met in Geneva in 1986.

62 P. Boissier, above note 1, p. 80.

63 Compte rendu … 1863, above note 41, p. 145; P. Boissier, above note 1, p. 81.

64 Minutes of the meeting of 9 November 1863, in IRRC, No. 23, February 1963, p. 71 (revised translation); Procès-verbaux des séances du Comité international de la Croix-Rouge, above note 37, p. 25.

65 Minutes of the meeting of 9 November 1863, above note 64, pp. 71–72; Procès-verbaux des séances du Comité international de la Croix-Rouge, above note 37, pp. 25–26; circular of 15 November 1863 and communication of 15 June 1864, Actes du Comité international, 1871, above note 41, pp. 9–10 and 17–36.

66 P. Boissier, above note 1, pp. 87–89.

67 H. Dunant, above note 7, pp. 131–140; C. Chaponnière, above note 9, p. 177.

68 P. Boissier, above note 1, pp. 103–114; C. Chaponnière, above note 9, pp. 167–171 and 174–182 ; J. de Senarclens, above note 22, pp. 199–203.

69 Letter from Mr Drouyn de Lhuys, French Foreign Minister, to Dr Kern, Minister of the Swiss Confederation in Paris, 21 May 1864, authenticated copy, ICRC Archives, historical collection, file ‘Correspondance avec la France, 1863–1870’; P. Boissier, above note 1, p. 109.

70 Meeting of 13 March 1864, in IRRC, No. 23, February 1963, pp. 72–73; Procès-verbaux des séances du Comité international de la Croix-Rouge, above note 37, pp. 26–27.

71 Meeting of the Geneva Section, 17 March 1864, in IRRC, No. 23, February 1963, p. 74; Procès-verbaux des séances du Comité international de la Croix-Rouge, above note 37, pp. 28–29. The intervention of the International Committee explains what might appear an anomaly: the fact that the Geneva section was founded before the Swiss Red Cross, which was not established until 1866.

72 Secours aux Blessés, above note 33, p. 45; mandate of Captain van de Velde, 22 March 1864, ICRC Archives, file ‘Comité international, 1863–1880’.

73 Secours aux Blessés, above note 33, pp. 30–33 (Study by Dr Brière), pp. 45–144 (Report by Dr Appia), pp. 145–177 (Report by Captain van de Velde), and pp. 179–187 (Note on relief work in the United States of America by Dr Th. Maunoir).

74 Letter from the International Committee to the Federal Council, 26 May 1864, Actes du Comité international, 1871, above note 41, pp. 15–16; Message du Conseil fédéral à l'Assemblée fédérale touchant la convention conclue à Genève pour l'amélioration du sort des militaires blessés dans les armées en campagne, Federal Chancellery, Berne, 21 September 1864, pp. 3–4.

75 Compte rendu de la Conférence internationale pour la Neutralisation du Service de Santé militaire en Campagne, réunie à Genève du 8 au 22 août 1864 (hereinafter: Compte rendu … 1864). A manuscript version of the proceedings is held by the ICRC library; it is reproduced (in French) in De Martens, Nouveau Recueil général de Traités, Vol. XX, pp. 375–399, and in the Revue internationale de la Croix-Rouge, No. 425, May 1954, pp. 416–423; No. 426, June 1954, pp. 483–498; and No. 427, July 1954, pp. 573–586.

76 The Swiss delegation also included Dr Lehmann, doctor-in-chief of the federal army.

77 Compte rendu … 1864, above note 75, p. 10.

78 Le Congrès de Genève, Rapport adressé au Conseil fédéral par MM. Dufour, Moynier et Lehmann, Plénipotentiaires de la Suisse, Imprimerie Fick, Geneva, 1864, p. 3. (The report is included in Actes du Comité international, 1871, above note 41, pp. 44–49).

79 Compte rendu … 1864, above note 75, p. 9; Le Congrès de Genève, above note 78, p. 3.

80 Compte rendu … 1864, above note 75, pp. 10–12; P. Boissier, above note 1, pp. 139–165; Véronique Harouel, Genève–Paris, 1863–1918: Le droit humanitaire en construction, Henry Dunant Society/ICRC/French Red Cross, Geneva, 2003, pp. 79–105.

81 Compte rendu … 1864, above note 75, Annexe B; Georg Friedrich De Martens, Nouveau Recueil général de Traités, première série, Vol. XVIII, pp. 612–619; Handbook of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, above note 52, pp. 21–22; The Laws of Armed Conflicts, above note 59, pp. 365–368.

82 Compte rendu … 1863, above note 41, p. 10.

83 Ibid., p. 131.

84 Letter from Gustave Moynier to Henry Dunant, 1 June 1864 (ICRC Archives, A AF 20/1-3, file ‘Comité international 1863–1880’) and ‘Appel aux amis genevois du Comité international’, 15 June 1864, (ICRC Archives, A AF 21/3b, file ‘La Convention de 1864’).

85 ‘Du double caractère, national et international, des Sociétés de secours’, in Bulletin international des Sociétés de secours aux militaires blessés, No. 4, July 1870, p. 160. Although the article was not signed, it was written by Moynier.

86 Minutes of the meeting of 17 February 1863, above note 37, pp. 63–65; Procès-verbaux des séances du Comité international de la Croix-Rouge, above note 37, pp. 16–19.