International Red Cross Committee

International Red Cross Committee, body based in Geneva comprising not more than 25 Swiss citizens who, with the Red Cross societies of individual countries and the League of National Red Cross Societies, make up the International Red Cross. It was started in 1863 when a committee of five ‘for succouring the wounded’ was organized in Geneva by a Swiss, Henri Dunant, who was much influenced by the work of Florence Nightingale in the Crimean war and by the scenes he had witnessed after the battle of Solferino in 1859. Following the committee's first meeting national societies were founded in many countries, the first Geneva Convention was signed in 1864, and the Geneva branch developed into the International Committee.

The Red Cross flag, the Swiss flag reversed, came to be universally acknowledged as a sign which should protect ships, hospitals, medical personnel, and ambulances from attack. Though it was emphasized that the cross had no religious significance, the Turkish government later adopted a red crescent, the Iranians used a red lion and sun, and the Israelis a red Star of David.

In September 1939 the committee placed itself at the service of all belligerent countries ‘to contribute,’ it stated in a letter, ‘in a humanitarian way, in its traditional role and with all its resources, towards lessening the evils brought by war.’ It organized a central agency for information about prisoners-of-war (POW), transmitting 120 million messages; arranged the exchange of sick and wounded POW, and of medical personnel; forwarded 36 million parcels to POW; co-ordinated unofficial relief measures; and its delegates made thousands of inspection visits to POW and internment camps. It arranged that interned civilians received the same treatment as POW, but the Jews in concentration camps were beyond its help, for those running the German Red Cross were active Nazi Party supporters who, in line with Hitler's Night and Fog Decree, ensured that no information would be given about any prisoners in these camps.

The committee had no powers of compulsion with countries such as Japan and the USSR, which were not parties to the 1929 Geneva Convention. But it used the bargaining point of reciprocity when negotiating with powers to uphold the Geneva Conventions regarding prisoners, and it also carried moral weight in the world community. By the end of the war it had 145 permanent delegations, all Swiss. They were mostly doctors but also included lawyers, engineers, and businessmen, who would liaise with the Red Cross societies of the countries they were in.