The Sound of Silence: The History of the International Committee of the Red Cross as Past and Present

Citation

Wylie N (2002) The Sound of Silence: The History of the International Committee of the Red Cross as Past and Present. Review of: Jean-Francois Pitteloud, 'Proces-verbaux des Seances du Comite international de la Croix-Rouge, 17 Fevrier 1863-28 aout 1914', Geneva, 1999; Caroline Moorhead, 'Dunant's Dream. War, Switzerland and the History of the Red Cross', London, 1998; Jean-Claude Favez, 'The Red Cross and the Holocaust', Cambridge, 1999;. Diplomacy & Statecraft, 13 (4), pp. 186-204. https://doi.org/10.1080/714000345

Abstract
First paragraph: Much of the current success of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) rests on an image of its past. The work, and in many instances personal survival, of its delegates ultimately depends on the confidence and respect the ICRC has earned for its tireless efforts to promote humanitarian principles over the last 130 years. In a speech delivered earlier last year, the ICRC's political adviser noted that alongside the ICRC's operational principles and the various legal instruments it has promoted - most recently the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and 1977 Additional Protocols - the ICRC's legitimacy as a humanitarian agency sprang from 'the product of time, the legitimacy acquired through activities conducted in the long term'. It has been this sense of continuity that has enabled ICRC delegates to perform the role of the 'troisieme combattant', entering, unarmed, into the most dangerous of conflicts, gaining access to places, and accomplishing tasks that no other humanitarian organization could hope to emulate.

Notes
Output Type: Book Review

Journal
Diplomacy & Statecraft: Volume 13, Issue 4

People

Professor Neville Wylie

Deputy Principal