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Humanitarian principles put to the test: Challenges to humanitarian action during decolonization

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 November 2015

Andrew Thompson
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Abstract

This article examines the meaning and purpose of the Fundamental Principles of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement during and after decolonization. This was a period when the character of conflict experienced far-reaching changes, when the limitations of international humanitarian law were sharply exposed, and when humanitarian organizations of all kinds – the International Committee of the Red Cross included – redefined their missions and mandates. The Fundamental Principles were caught up in these processes; subject to a resurgent State sovereignty, they were both animated and constrained by the geopolitical forces of the era. The article pays particular attention to the politicization of the Principles in the contexts of colonial counter-insurgency, political detention and transfers of power.

Keywords

Fundamental PrinciplesRed Cross and Red Crescent MovementGeneva Conventionsdecolonizationforced resettlementliberation movementscolonial counter-insurgencypolitical detention
Type
Principles put to the test
Information
International Review of the Red Cross , Volume 97 , Issue 897-898: Principles guiding humanitarian action , June 2015 , pp. 45 - 76
Copyright
Copyright © icrc 2015 

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References

1 For a fuller analysis of the International Red Cross during decolonization, see my forthcoming book, Humanitarianism on Trial: How a Global System of Aid and Development Emerged Through the End of Empire.

2 Traditionally, armed conflicts were fought between two or more States and were therefore of an international character. Non-international armed conflicts (NIACs) are conflicts that are fought between governmental forces and non-State actors or between such non-State actors only. Wars of liberation were recognized as conflicts of an international character with the adoption of Additional Protocol I; this will be explained in more detail below. For the issue of NIACs in IHL, see Francçois Bugnion, The International Committee of the Red Cross and the Protection of War Victims, Macmillan, Oxford, 2003, pp. 330–44.

3 Hopkins, Antony G., “Rethinking Decolonization”, Past & Present, No. 200, 2008, pp. 212–247Google Scholar; John Darwin, Unfinished Empire: The Global Expansion of Britain, Allen Lane, London, 2012, Chapter 11; Dieter Rothermund, The Routledge Companion to Decolonization, Routledge, London, 2006.

4 Geneva Convention (I) for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armed Forces in the Field of 12 August 1949, 75 UNTS 31 (entered into force 21 October 1950) (GC I); Geneva Convention (II) for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded, Sick and Shipwrecked Members of the Armed Forces at Sea of 12 August 1949, 75 UNTS 85 (entered into force 21 October 1950); Geneva Convention (III) relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War of 12 August 1949, 75 UNTS 135 (entered into force 21 October 1950) (GC III); Geneva Convention (IV) relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 12 August 1949, 75 UNTS 287 (entered into force 21 October 1950) (GC IV).

5 Huw Bennett, Fighting the Mau Mau: The British Army and Counterinsurgency in the Kenya Emergency, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2013, p. 66.

6 Roger Gallopin, Executive Director, ICRC, “Action du CICR en faveur des victimes des guerres civiles et des troubles intérieurs”, 3 September 1958, Archives du Comité International de la Croix-Rouge (ACICR), B AG 225 000-003.01, subsequently discussed with the Executive Committee of the League of Red Cross Societies, 24 September 1958.

7 Palmieri, Daniel, “An Institution Standing the Test of Time? A Review of the History of the International Committee of the Red Cross”, International Review of the Red Cross, Vol. 94, No. 888, 2012CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

8 For the 1977 Additional Protocols, see Baxter, Richard Reeve, “Humanitarian Law or Humanitarian Politics? The 1974 Diplomatic Conference on Humanitarian Law”, Harvard International Law Journal, Vol. 16, No. 1, 1975Google Scholar; Forsythe, David, “The 1974 Diplomatic Conference on Humanitarian Law: Some Observations”, American Journal of International Law, Vol. 69, 1975CrossRefGoogle Scholar; George Aldrich, “Some Reflections on the Origins of the 1977 Geneva Protocols”, and Medard R. Rwelamira, “The Significance and Contribution of the Protocols Additional to the Geneva Conventions of August 1949”, in Christophe Swinarski (ed.), Studies and Essays on International Humanitarian Law and Red Cross Principles, Martinus Nijhoff, Leiden, 1984.

9 Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts, 8 June 1977, 1125 UNTS 3 (entered into force 7 December 1978).

10 Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts, 8 June 1977, 1125 UNTS 609 (entered into force 7 December 1978).

11 AP I, Art. 1(4). See also R. R. Baxter, above note 8, p. 12; Geoffrey Best, Humanity in Warfare: The Modern History of the International Law in Armed Conflicts, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1980, p. 321; Medard Rwelamira, “The Significance and Contribution of the Protocols Additional to the Geneva Conventions of August 1949”, in C. Swinarski (ed.), above note 8, pp. 230–231.

12 For the latest study on the Additional Protocols, see Giovanni Fabrizio Casas, “Under (Social) Pressure: The Historical Regulation of Internal Armed Conflicts through International Law”, PhD diss., University of Minnesota, 2013.

13 Throughout this article, I use the term “humanitarian principles” to refer to the way in which humanitarian actors of various types sought to justify, explain and defend their actions with reference to a set of underlying, basic or core values and beliefs, and the term “Fundamental Principles” to refer to the specific way in which the ICRC and the wider Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement agreed to abide by the principles of humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity and universality. While States did not necessarily have to accept the Fundamental Principles themselves, they were expected to respect that the ICRC and the Movement would adhere to them: this expectation was implicit until 1986, when it was formalized in Article 2 of the Statutes of the Movement. While the distinction between humanitarian principles generally, and the Fundamental Principles specifically, is important to maintain, it is equally necessary to recognize the overlap and exchange between them. The Fundamental Principles were never an island unto themselves; on the contrary, they were linked into a wider set of debates about humanitarian principles that rippled throughout the constellation of organizations collectively referred to as the humanitarian “system” or “sector”.

14 The “Fundamental Principles” were adopted at the 20th International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement in Vienna in 1965. They provide an ethical, operational and institutional framework guiding the work of the Movement, which was developed over a century of humanitarian action in the field. For my reflections on the history of the Fundamental Principles, see: www.odihpn.org/the-humanitarian-space/news/announcements/blog-articles/the-future-of-the-past-shining-the-light-of-history-on-the-challenges-facing-principled-humanitarian-action (all internet references were accessed in May 2015).

15 Richard Overy, The Bombing War: Europe, 1939–45, Allen Lane, London, 2013.

16 On this point, see Bugnion, Francçois, “From the End of the Second World War to the Dawn of the Third Millennium: The Activities of the International Committee of the Red Cross during the Cold War and Its Aftermath: 1945–1995”, International Review of the Red Cross, No. 305, 1995CrossRefGoogle Scholar; D. Palmieri, above note 7; William R. Smyser, The Humanitarian Conscience: Caring for Others in the Age of Terror, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, 2003, Chapters 4–6.

17 Jean Pictet, “Armed Conflicts: Laws and Customs”, Review of the International Commission of Jurists, No. 1, March 1969, p. 34.

18 Arjun Appadurai, “Tactical Humanism”, Polis, Vol. 9, 2002, p. 1.

19 “Perspectives on the Future of Humanitarian Action”, live web seminar, 11 February 2013, available at: www.icrc.org/eng/resources/documents/event/2013/03-13-future-humanitarian-action-web-seminar.htm.

20 For an insightful study of humanitarian and human rights interventions in Kenya and Algeria, based on the ICRC and UN archives, which brings out these themes, see Fabian Klose, Human Rights in the Shadow of Colonial Violence: The Wars of Independence in Kenya and Algeria, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, PA, 2009.

21 John Darwin, “What Was the Late Colonial State?”, Itinerario, Vol. 23, No. 3–4, 1999; David A. Low and John M. Lonsdale, “Towards the New Order, 1945–63”, in David A. Low and Alison Smith (eds), The History of East Africa, Vol. 3, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1976.

22 This argument is developed in greater detail in my forthcoming book, above note 1.

23 Mark Duffield, Development, Security and Unending War: Governing the World of Peoples, Polity Press, Cambridge, 2007; Timothy Mitchell, Rule of Experts: Egypt, Techno-Politics, Modernity, University of California Press, Berkeley, CA, 2002.

24 For two recent studies of late-colonial warfare, see Michael Burleigh, Small Wars, Far Away Places: The Genesis of the Modern World, 1945–65, Macmillan, Oxford, 2013; Martin Thomas, Fight or Flight: Britain, France and Their Roads from Empire, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2014.

25 For a recent analysis and overview of the violence of the end of empire, see M. Thomas, above note 24.

26 Jean-Francçois Bayart, L'Etat en Afrique: La politique du ventre, Fayard, Paris, 1989; Crawford Young, The African Colonial State in Comparative Perspective, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 1994.

27 This point is eloquently made by several of the case studies in M. Burleigh, above note 24.

28 For the idea of “protracted social conflict”, see Azar, Edward E., Jureidini, Paul and McLaurin, Ronald, “Protracted Social Conflict: Theory and Practice in the Middle East”, Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 8, No. 1, 1978/9, pp. 41–60CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The authors note a marked increase in conflict in the period from 1945 to 1972 (congruent with decolonization), taking place predominantly in the “Third World”, as well as an increase in Western and communist interventions in conflict during these years.

29 Both Oxfam and Christian Aid were reluctant to work among the Mau Mau during the Kenyan Emergency but were willing to deliver aid to loyalist Kikuyu, and privately explained this decision in terms of the likely reaction of their donors and supporters: see my forthcoming book, above note 1. For the actions of the British Red Cross during the Kenyan and other emergencies (which were influenced more by the National Society's links to the Colonial Office in Britain than to their membership in the Red Cross), see below.

30 “The ICRC in Algeria: Human Fellowship Against Hatred”, September 1960, ACICR, B AG 202 000-003.07; “La Croix-Rouge s'élève contre la torture et l'abus des actes de violence”, October 1962, ACICR, B AG 202 008-001.

31 “The ICRC in Algeria”, above note 30, p. 1.

32 Ibid.

33 “La Croix-Rouge s'élève contre la torture”, above note 30, p. 3.

34 “The ICRC in Algeria”, above note 30, p. 1.

35 “La Croix-Rouge s'élève contre la torture”, above note 30, p. 4.

36 This point is particularly well captured in Joanna Lewis, Empire State-Building: War and Welfare in Kenya, 1925–52, James Currey, Woodbridge, 2000. See also James Midgley and David Piachaud (eds), Colonialism and Welfare: Social Policy and the British Imperial Legacy, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, 2011.

37 Cynthia Brassard-Boudreau and Don Hubert, “Shrinking Humanitarian Space? Trends and Prospects on Security and Access”, Journal of Humanitarian Assistance, 24 November 2010, available at: http://sites.tufts.edu/jha/archives/863.

38 Jean-Luc Blondel kindly shared with me a transcript of a workshop he had organized on this very question.

39 I am grateful to Geoff Loane, Jacques Moreillon and Jean-Luc Blondel for sharing their views regarding the implications of the “auxiliary status” of National Societies for the scope of independent humanitarian action.

40 Address by Jacques Moreillon, Delegate-General for Africa, 23 July 1974, ACICR, B AG 122 231-008.

41 Ibid., p. 6.

42 My research in the British Red Cross Society archive in London and interviews with former Red Cross workers in Britain's colonies reveal the extraordinary speed with which the National Society expanded into the colonies following the Second World War: see, for example, the typescript of the Desert Island Discs interview with Joan Whittington, interviewed by Roy Plomley, 16 September 1970, Archives of the British Red Cross Society (ABRCS), Acc 0287/43-45.

43 For a clear explanation of the former, and a sense of the latter, see David French, The British Way in Counterinsurgency, 1945–1967, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2011.

44 Deputy-Chairman of British Red Cross Society to Major-General E. S. Lindsay, Chief of Staff to High Commissioner of Malaya, 18 January 1953, ABRCS, 1983/51.

45 “Notes on BRCS Work in Connection with the Emergency”, ABRCS, 0287/43-45.

46 “Cyprus. May 1949. Miss Ainley”, and “Report of visit by Phylis Ferris, 19/2/1950 to 26/4/1950”, ABRCS, 76/16/1.

47 D. French, above note 43, pp. 122–123.

48 Michael Wood to Joan Whittington, 26 May 1954, ABRCS, 1983/54.

49 Ibid.

50 EOKA stood for Ethniki Organosis Kyprion Agoniston (National Organization of Cypriot Fighters).

51 Evelyn Bark to Dr Stuart Stanbury, 4 February 1959, and Joan Whittington to Léopold Boissier, 21 January 1959, ABRCS, 775/105.

52 Ibid.

53 Telephone interview with Pegeen Hill, May 2012.

54 For her own account, see Penelope Tremayne, Below the Tide: War and Peace in Cyprus, Hutchinson & Co, London, 1958.

55 Anthea Hall, “Emblem that Even Bandits Respect”, ABRCS, 76/39/2; Bran Hodgson, “The Winds of Change”, in Pauline Samuelson (ed.), I Owe My Life to You (Red Cross), Bloomsbury, London, 1995, p. 101.

56 Noel Barber, The War of the Running Dogs, Collins, London, 1971, pp. 106–107.

57 Joan Whittington to Angela Limerick, 17 March 1954 and 26 March 1954, ABRCS, 0287/43-45.

58 Diary of Lady Limerick's Tour of the Far East, January–March 1953, ABRCS, 1594/18, p. 8.

59 Ibid.

60 Oswald Hughes, Office of District Commissioner, Nyeri, to Joan Whittington, 26 May 1954 and 5 July 1954, ABRCS, 0297/43-45.

61 Cantor, David, “Does IHL Prohibit the Forced Displacement of Civilians During War?”, International Journal of Refugee Law, Vol. 24, No. 4, 2012CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For studies of forced resettlement (or “villagization”) policies during decolonization, see Caroline Elkins, Britain's Gulag: The Brutal End of Empire in Kenya, Pimlico, London, 2005; Richard Stubbs, Hearts and Minds in Guerrilla Warfare: The Malayan Emergency, 1948–60, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1989; Heike Schmidt, Colonialism and Violence in Zimbabwe: A History of Suffering, James Currey, Oxford, 2013. For forced resettlement and humanitarianism, see Nicholas Van Hear and Christopher McDowell (eds), Catching Fire: Containing Forced Migration in a Volatile World, Lexington, Oxford, 2006.

62 See, for example, Jimmy Patrick, Officer in Charge of Resettlement, “Reasons and Objects of Resettlement”, 22 October 1951, ABRCS, 76/31.

63 For the defence of the policy, see, for example, N. Van Hear and C. McDowell (eds), above note 61.

64 For the latest studies of the Mau Mau and Kenya's counter-insurgency, see David Anderson, Histories of the Hanged: Britain's Dirty War in Kenya and the End of Empire, Weidenfield & Nicolson, London, 2005; H. Bennett, above note 5; Daniel Branch, Defeating Mau Mau, Creating Kenya: Counterinsurgency, Civil War, and Decolonization, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2009; C. Elkins, above note 61.

65 “Kenya Branch of BRCS Report, 1953”, ABRCS, 0297/43-45; Joan Whittington to Eileen Timms, 8 June 1954, ABRCS, 1983/54.

66 Joan Whittington's Diary, 1954–55, ABRCS, 1983/54.

67 “Vice-Chairman's Visit to East Africa”, 1957, ABRCS, 1594/27.

68 For conditions in the villages, see Ibid.; and “Report on Red Cross Work in Kenya after visiting Reserves, by Lady Grey”, ABRCS, 0297/43-35.

69 For the policy of forced resettlement in Malaya, see John Coates, Suppressing Insurgency: An Analysis of the Malayan Emergency, 1948–54, Westview Press, Boulder, CO, 1992; Hack, Karl, “‘Iron Claws on Malaya’: The Historiography of the Malayan Emergency”, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Vol. 30, No. 1, 1999CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Kumar Ramakrishna, Emergency Propaganda: The Winning of Malayan Hearts and Minds, 1948–58, Curzon, Richmond, 2002; Anthony Short, The Communist Insurrection in Malaya, 1948–60, Crane, Russak & Co, New York, 1975; R. Stubbs, above note 21.

70 A smaller number of St John's relief teams were also involved in the resettlement programmes in Malaya. St. John Ambulance is a British Charity that was set up in 1877. It is particularly well known in the UK but also has an international presence.

71 By April 1953, $26,248,000 had been spent on resettlement, including $3,917,000 on “aftercare” services. The Malayan Chinese Association raised $4 million for new village projects and supported the work of the British Red Cross.

72 British Red Cross Society Annual Report on the Federation of Malaya Branch, 1953, ABRCS, 1983/51.

73 Rosemary Wall and Anne Marie Rafferty, “Nursing and the ‘Hearts and Minds’ Campaign, 1948–58: The Malayan Emergency”, in Patricia D'Antonio, Julie Fairman and Jean Whelan (eds), Routledge Handbook on the Global History of Nursing, Routledge, Abingdon, 2013, p. 230.

74 Whittington to Chairman of Branch, 10 November 1951, and Report of Trengganu Branch, 8 September 1951, and Report of Perak Branch, 31 December 1953, ABRCS, 1983/51.

75 Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, adopted by UNGA Res. 1514 (XV), 14 December 1960, available at: www.un.org/en/decolonization/declaration.shtml.

76 On the UN and decolonization, including the 1960 Declaration, see David Kay, The New Nations in the United Nations, 1960–67, Columbia University Press, New York, 1970; John Sankey, “Decolonisation: Cooperation and Confrontation at the United Nations”, in Erik Jensen and Thomas Fisher (eds), The United Kingdom – The United Nations, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, 1990, pp. 90–119; William Roger Louis, “Public Enemy Number One: The British Empire in the Dock at the United Nations, 1957–71”, in Martin Lynn (ed.), The British Empire in the 1950s: Retreat or Revival?, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, 2005, pp. 186–213.

77 “Security detainees” is the term now widely used, but in the period in question this was not the case, and “political detainees” was the preferred description.

78 For this point, see, especially, Fran Lisa Buntman, Robben Island and Prisoner Resistance to Apartheid, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2003; Munochiveyi, Munyaradzi, “The Political Lives of Rhodesian Detainees during Zimbabwe's Liberation Struggle”, International Journal of African Historical Studies, Vol. 46, No. 2, 2013, pp. 283–304Google Scholar; Peterson, Derek, “The Intellectual Lives of Mau Mau Detainees”, Journal of African History, Vol. 49, 2008, pp. 73–91CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

79 Address by Jacques Moreillon, Delegate-General for Africa, 23 May 1975, ACICR, B AG 225 231-004. See also Georges Willemin and Roger Heacock under the direction of Jacques Freymond, The International Committee of the Red Cross, Martinus Nijhoff, Boston, MA, 1984, p. 13.

80 For the legal basis of this “right of initiative”, see common Art. 3(2); AP I, Art. 81(1); GC I–III, Art. 9; GC IV, Art. 10.

81 Jacques Moreillon to Edward Ndlovu, 16 August 1974, ACICR, B AG 252, 231-002.

82 See H. Bennett, above note 5; David French, Fighting EOKA: The British Counter-Insurgency Campaign on Cyprus, 1955–1959, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2015; “ICRC in Kenya”, ABRCS, Acc 1337/1; “ICRC in Cyprus”, ABRCS, 76/16/1, 30 December 1959; and for Aden, Ian D. M. Reid, Assistant Secretary-General, to Director of International Affairs Department, British Red Cross Society, 13 January 1965, and Sir Patrick Renison, Vice-Chairman, to R. F. A. Shegog, Colonial Office, 26 January 1965, ABRCS, Acc 0287/14.

83 Address by Jacques Moreillon, Delegate-General for Africa, 23 May 1975, ACICR, B AG 225 231-004.

84 Lady Limerick to Paul Ruegger, 24 August 1953, ACICR, B AG 225 000-007.

85 “Memorandum on the Application of Humanitarian Principles in Internal Conflict”, 1995, ACICR, B AG 225 000-001; Léopold Boissier, Vice-President, ICRC, to Mr Nansen, 20 April 1955, ACICR, B AG225 000-007.

86 ACICR, BAG 225 000-001/002/003/007/013/016.

87 “Mémoire documentaire sur l'assistance aux détenus politiques”, 1953, ACICR, B AG 225 000-001.

88 “Memoire sur l'application des principes humanitaires en cas de troubles intérieurs”, 1955, ACICR, B AG 225 000-001.

89 This was particularly true of the ICRC's stance during the Cold War, when its anti-communist sympathies were evident with regard to the conflict in Korea: see Riffer-Flanagan, Barbara Ann, “Is Neutral Humanitarianism Dead? Red Cross Neutrality: Walking the Tightrope of Neutral Humanitarianism”, Human Rights Quarterly, Vol. 31, No. 4, 2009, pp. 888–915CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

90 “Commission D'Experts chargée d'examiner la question de l'aide aux victims des conflicts internes”, 1962, ACICR, B AG 225 000-016; “Role of the ICRC and the National Societies in the Case of Internal Conflicts”, 1963, ACICR, B AG 225 000-013.

91 Ibid., p. 5.

92 Secretary-General to Vice-Chairman, 3 December 1962, and Secretary-General to Roger Gallopin, 21 January 1964, ABRCS, 287/14.

93 For an overview of the ICRC and detention, see David Forsyth, The Humanitarians: The International Committee of the Red Cross, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2005, pp. 297–304.

94 See, especially, Richard Ashby Wilson and Richard Brown (eds), Humanitarianism and Suffering: The Mobilization of Empathy, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2011.

95 C. Elkins, above note 61, pp. 299–300.

96 “Extracts from Minutes of a Meeting of the Executive Committee of the Kenya Branch of the British Red Cross Society”, 28 July 1955, ABRCS, Acc 0287/43-45.

97 Diary of Visit of Vice-Chairman to East Africa, 13 January 1957 to 9 February 1957, ABRCS, 1594/27.

98 Morier-Genoud, Eric, “Missions and Institutions: Henri-Philippe Junod, Anthropology, Human Rights and Academia between Africa and Switzerland, 1921–1966”, Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Religions- und Kulturgeschichte, Vol. 105, 2011Google Scholar.

99 Ibid.

100 Godfrey Senn to Pierre Gaillard, 24 October 1955, ACICR, D AF RHODE 2 01-001.

101 G. Senn to P. Gaillard, 1 February 1960, ACICR, B AG 225 231-001; Report on Detainees in D Compound at Kanjedza Camp, 25 October 59, ACICR, B AG 225 231-004.

102 G. Senn to Minister of Law, 22 December 1959, ACICR, B AG 225 231-005.

103 André Rochat, Fonds d'archives privé André Rochat: Les missions du CICR au Moyen-Orient de 1963 à 1971, Geneva, 2008.

104 Robin Neillands, A Fighting Retreat: The British Empire, 1947–97, Hodder Headline, London, 1996, p. 330.

105 Memorandum of I. D. M. Reid, Assistant Secretary-General, 14 November 1962, ABRCS, 0287/14.

106 N. Rafai, Acting UN Officer in Charge of Trusteeship and Non-Self Governing Territories, to Samuel Gonard, 26 July 1966, ACICR, B AG 200 001-002. See also UN Resolution of the Special Committee Granting Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, UN Doc. A/AC 109/179, June 1966.

107 Enquiry from Secretary-General of Red Crescent Society of the United Arab Republic regarding Aden Detainees to Pierre Gaillard, 19 January 1965, ACICR, B AG 225 001-002. See also Jean Pictet to André Rochat, 4 March 1965, ACICR, B AG 200 226-001.

108 Vice-Chair to Chair, 6 November 1964, and “Information Notes, Federation of South Arabia”, 9 October 1964, ABRCS.

109 For Rochat's reports, see ACICR, B AG 202 001-001, 225 001-002, 225 001-004. Quotation from F. Rais to Pierre Gaillard, 11 September 1967, ACICR, B AG 225 001-005.

110 For the principle of confidentiality, see Memorandum, “The ICRC's Privilege of Non-Disclosure of Confidential Information”, in this issue of the Review.

111 T. Mathez to Dr Selahaddin Rastgeldi, 7 November 1966, and Pierre Gaillard to Robert Swann, 22 July 1966, ACICR, B AG 225 001-002.

112 Alexander Hay to James T. Kruger, 10 November 1978, ACICR, D AF RHODE 02-006.

113 Ibid. A source of great tension was the fact that ICRC visits were restricted to those held under Section 10 of the Security Act, and access to those held under Section 6 of the Terrorism Act was denied.

114 Godfrey Senn to Jacques de Heller, 3 March 1968, ACICR, D AF RHODE 2 01-001.

115 Access was not in fact unrestricted at this time. M. I. Botha, South African Ambassador to the UN, to U Thant, UN Secretary-General, 13 April 1967 and 17 April 1967, Archives of the UN Human Rights Commission (AUNHRC), SO 234 (13-1), 03.1967-12.1969. Botha's very carefully worded letters referred to the fact that “reports have been issued and statements made by these independent persons” without saying anything about their actual contents.

116 Godfrey Senn to Claude Pilloud, 21 February 1968, ACICR, D AF RHODE 2 02-002. See also Jacques Moreillon, Internal Study: Moments with Madiba, May 2005, pp. 22–29. I am grateful to Dr Moreillon for supplying me with a copy of this document prior to publication.

117 Rev. John Collins to Jean Pictet, 13 April 1967, ACICR, D AF RHODE 2 02-002.

118 Godfrey Senn, “Note for the ICRC”, 8 October 1969, ACICR, D AF RHODE 2 01-009.

119 See Marc Schreiber to Curtis Roosevelt, Chief NGO Section, ECOSOC, 17 November 1967, AUNHRC, SO 234 (13-3), 07-1967-12.1967; and Samuel Gonard to U Thant, 27 June 1967, copy in Claire Howe to Charles Hogan, 11 July 1967, AUNHRC, SO 234 (13-3), 04.1967-07.1967.

120 The ICRC did suffer the temporary setback of having to spend a year renegotiating access to detention sites in Algeria. For a fuller account of this episode and its consequences, see Perret, Francoise and Bugnion, Francois, “Between Insurgents and Government: The International Committee of the Red Cross's Action in the Algerian War (1954–62)”, International Review of the Red Cross, Vol. 93, No. 883, 2011, pp. 730–732CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

121 G. Willemin and R. Heacock, above note 79, pp. 70–76, 112–16.

122 “Memorandum on the Assistance of Political Detainees”, 1953, ACICR, B AG 225 000-001.

123 “Réunion d'une commission d'experts prevue pour 1959 et finalment renvoyée”, ACICR, B AG 225 000-001.04.

124 “Role of the ICRC and the National Societies in the Case of Internal Conflicts”, ACICR, B AG 225 000-013.

125 Bernard Waites, Europe and the Third World: From Colonisation to Decolonisation, c.1500–1998, Macmillan, Basingstoke, 1999, Chapter 8.

126 The phrase is taken from Jean Pictet, “The Need to Restore the Laws and Customs relating to Armed Conflicts”, Review of the International Commission of Jurists, No. 1, March 1969, p. 34.

127 For the post-war expansion humanitarian activity, and the role of international law and humanitarian principles in justifying this expansion, see, especially, Elizabeth Ferris, The Politics of Protection: The Limits of Humanitarian Action, Brookings Institution Press, Washington, DC, 2011, pp. 2–3, 6, 59–61; William R. Smyser, above note 16, Chapters 5 and 6.

128 G. Willemin and R. Heacock, above note 79, pp. 46–48 (quotation from p. 47).

129 Figures from Hans Haug, Humanity for All: The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, Paul Haupt Publishers, Berne, 1993, pp. 70, 355–356.

130 Jonathan Benthall and Jerome Bellion-Jourdan, The Charitable Crescent: Politics of Aid in the Muslim World, I. B. Tauris, London, 2003.

131 “Development of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland since 1950”, 15 March 1957, and Godfrey Senn to Roger Gallopin, “Note for the ICRC”, 6 March 1959, ACICR, B AG 209 231-002.

132 Godfrey Senn to R. Moffat, 17 November 1961, ACICR, D AF RHODE 2 01-004; Philippe Zuegger to Nicolas de Rougemont, 27 March 1976, ACICR, B AG 122 231-007.

133 Lady Limerick to Léopold Boissier, 8 February 1962, ACICR, B AG 209 231-002.

134 Brian W. S. O'Connell, Chairman, Rhodesian Red Cross, to Frank Schmidt, 9 October 1976, ACICR, B AG 122 231-008; F. C. Maurer, “Note No. 1958”, 6 August 1979, ACICR, B AG 122 231-004.

135 Meeting of representatives of ICRC, BRCS and Rhodesian Red Cross on Future Organisation and Activities of Rhodesian Red Cross in relation to the ICRC's Emergency Operations in Rhodesia, London, 4 July 1978, ACICR, B AG 122 231-003.

136 Meurant, Jacques, “The 125th Anniversary of the International Review of the Red Cross – A Faithful Record. III. The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement: Solidarity and Unity”, International Review of the Red Cross, Vol. 35, No. 307, 1995Google Scholar.

137 For the neo-colonial characteristics of contemporary humanitarianism, see Hugo Slim, Humanitarian Ethics: A Guide to the Morality of Aid in War and Disaster, Hurst & Company, London, 2015, pp. 10–11.

138 Ibid., pp. 3–4.

139 Alexander Spencer, Lessons Learnt: Terrorism and the Media, AHRC Public Policy Series No. 4, Swindon, 2012, p. 19.

140 R. A. Wilson and R. Brown (eds), above note 94, pp. 19, 23–25.