An impromptu meeting with Sudan Liberation Army fighters near Kwila, Sudan.
The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and international humanitarian law are inextricably linked. Both stem from the experience of Henry Dunant, horrified by the suffering he witnessed on a 19th-century battlefield.
The first formal IHL treaty, the Geneva Convention of 1864, established the very existence of Red Cross in international law.
The Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols as they exist today contain numerous provisions giving elements of the Movement specific tasks they are legally entitled to perform during times of armed conflict.
For example, under IHL the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has the right to visit prisoners of war, and Red Cross and Red Crescent National Societies must be allowed to bring assistance to victims of war. This legal connection between an international humanitarian organisation and a specific area of international law is unique.
What Red Cross does
The Red Cross researches and drafts new international humanitarian law treaties. It calls nations together to discuss and approve them. Red Cross delegates work around the world trying to ensure that the humanitarian standards set out in the rules of war are respected.
The highest deliberative body of the Movement, the International Conference, includes not only the three elements of the Movement (the ICRC, the Federation and National Societies) but also States who are party to the Geneva Conventions. Resolutions and statements from this important conference have identified the ICRC as the 'guardians or custodians' of IHL.
They also require National Societies, such as Australian Red Cross, to disseminate (educate, promote) the significance of IHL to particular target audiences and the general public.
There are many conditions to be met before a National Red Cross or Red Crescent Society is officially recognised. The first is that the State must have ratified the Geneva Conventions, and passed a law recognising the red cross, red crescent or red crystal within its territory.
IHL and the Red Cross Movement cannot be taken apart. One is simply not complete without the other.
Photo: Boris Heger/ICRC