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Emblem

Emblem

An emblem consists of a pictorial image, abstract or representational, that epitomizes a concept - often a concept of a moral truth or an allegory.

Distinction: emblem and symbol

The words emblem and symbol often appear interchangeably in day-to-day conversation without causing undue confusion. A distinction between the two may seem unnecessarily fastidious. Nevertheless, an emblem is a pattern that is used to represent an idea. An emblem crystallizes in concrete, visual terms some abstraction: a deity, a tribe or nation, a virtue or a vice. An emblem is an object or a representation of a object. An emblem may be worn or otherwise used as identifying badge. A metal emblem of a cockle shell sewn onto the hat identied a medieval pilgrim to the shrine of Santiago de Compostela. In current American usage, police officers' badges refer specifically to their personal metal emblem - sometimes with a uniquely identifying number or name on it - while the woven emblems sewn on their uniforms identify all the members of a particular unit. A symbol substitutes one thing for another, in a less concrete fashion: the Christian cross is a symbol of sacrifice; it is an emblem of the Crucifixion. A red cross on a white flag is the emblem of the International Red Cross. The Red Cross is a symbol of the humanitarian spirit. The crescent shape is a symbol of the moon; it is an emblem of Islam. The skull and crossbones is an emblem identifying a poison. The skull is a symbol of the transitory human life.

Other terminology

A totem is specifically an animal emblem that expresses the spirit of a clan. Heraldry knows its emblems as charges. The lion passant serves as the emblem of England, the lion rampant as the emblem of Scotland. An icon consists of an image (originally a religious image), that has become standardized by convention. A logo is an impersonal, secular icon, usually of a corporate entity.

Emblems in history

Since the 15th century the terms of emblem (emblema) and emblematura belong to the termini technici of architecture. They mean an iconic painted, drawn, or sculptural representation of a concept affixed to houses and belong - like the inscriptions - to the architectural ornaments (ornamenta). Since the publication of De architectura libri decem by Leon Battista Alberti (1404 - 1472) the emblems (emblema) are related to Egyptian hieroglyphics and are considered as being a secret iconic language. Therefore the emblems belong to the Renaissance knowledge of antiquity which comprises not only Greek and Roman antiquity but also Egyptian antiquity as proven by the numerous obelisks built in 16th and 17th century Rome. The 1531 publication in Augsburg of the first emblem book, the Emblemata of the Italian jurist Andrea Alciato launched a fascination with emblems that lasted two centuries and touched most of the countries of western Europe. "Emblem" in this sense refers to a didactic or moralizing combination of picture and text intended to draw the reader into a self-reflective examination of his or her own life. Complicated associations of emblems could transmit information to the culturally-informed viewer, a characteristic of the 16th century artistic movement called Mannerism.

Image

:For other uses, see Image (disambiguation) :For images in Wikipedia, see Wikipedia:Images. See also: Photograph In common usage, an image (from Latin imago) or picture is an artifact that reproduces the likeness of some subject—usually a physical object or a person. Images may be two dimensional (e.g. a photograph) or three dimensional (e.g. a statue). They are typically produced by optical devices—such as a cameras, mirrors, lenses, telescopes, microscopes, etc. and natural objects and phenomena, such as the human eye or water surfaces. The word image is also used in the broader sense of any two-dimensional figure or illustration, e.g. a map, a graph, a pie chart, an abstract painting, etc. In this wider sense, images can also be produced manually (by drawing, painting, carving, etc.), by computer graphics technology, or a combination of the two (see pseudo-photograph). A volatile image is one that exists only for a short period of time, e.g. the reflection of an object by a mirror, a projection of the sun on a wall by a pinhole camera, or a scene displayed on a cathode ray tube. A fixed image, also called hardcopy, is one that has been recorded on a material object, such as paper or textile. A mental image exists in someone's mind: something one remembers or imagines. The subject of an image need not be real; it may be an abstract concept, such as a graph or function—or an imaginary entity or being.
Specialised meanings
The word also has many specialized meanings in various disciplines and contexts:
- In geometric optics, a lens can produce a real image or a virtual image.
- In many other scientific and technical contexts, image usually means a two-dimensional signal—a physical phenomenon that can be modeled as a function from a two-dimensional domain (such as the plane or a rectangle) to some set of values, usually real numbers or vectors. This sense covers not only digital images but also analog ones, such as photographs. See image processing.
- In computer graphics and digital image processing, the word image almost always means digital image or, by extension, any computer description of an image, e.g. a raster map, an image file, or a 2D computer graphics model. For embedding an image in a webpage, see HTML element#Images. A number of standard test images are in use in the image processing literature which serve as a common test of various image processing algorithms.
- In computer science the word image can also mean an exact (bit-by-bit) copy of the contents of some device, such as a hard disk, floppy disk, CD-ROM, semiconductor storage chip, etc. In particular,
- A core image (or core dump, from magnetic core memory, the predominant RAM technology of the 1960s) is a faithful copy of the data stored in the main memory of a computer or process.
- An executable image is a structured file containing machine instructions and data, which can be loaded into a process's virtual memory and executed. See kernel (computers).
- A ROM image is a copy of the contents of an entire ROM chip, typically a video game executable, which may then be stored on another medium (in the case of copyrighted games, this comes under the category of software piracy).
- In mathematics, an image of a function consist of the output values of the mathematical function.
- In finance, the image is a coefficient (stock image) that bridges a stock's fundamental value and its market price.
- In philosophy, an image is a conception or idea.
- In religion, an image is an idol or icon, although these terms have very specialised meanings within certain sects and should not be held as always synonymous.
- In social psychology an image is a representation.
- In marketing image is often used as shorthand for the perception that consumers have for a brand, its values and its benefits (often referred to as brand image).
- Image Comics is an American publisher of comic books.
- The IMAGE spacecraft currently observing the Earth's magnetosphere
- In society, people tried to build up a certain image of themselves eg. the image of being a family man
See also

- optics
- imaging, photography, and digital imaging
- image processing
- digital camera
- graphical output device
- Wikipedia:Featured pictures
- Wikipedia:Image use policy
- Wikipedia:Image requests
- Wikimedia Commons free multimedia repository, that you can use directly in Wikipedia. You can upload new images or use the stored ones.
- Wikipedia:Extended image syntax (how to include images in Wikipedia pages).
- [http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikipedia_image_help Category:Wikipedia image help pages].
External links
Wikipedia:Extended image syntax
- [http://imagesearch.feedsfarm.com/ FeedsFarm Image Search]
- [http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/cgi-local/DHI/dhi.cgi?id=dv1-47 "Chance Image" at The Dictionary of the History of Ideas]
- [http://images.ithaki.net Ithaki: Web search engine for images]
- [http://ejrs.com/irfanview Irfanview 3.95: Free image viewing software]
- [https://tserver.girafa.com/sec/signup.acr?fp=1 Free website images]
- [http://www.myimagesearch.com Free Online Image Search and Edit]
- [http://www.bigfoto.com Pictures free Download] Category:Optics Category:Vision ja:画像

Allegory

An allegory (from Greek αλλος, allos, "other", and αγορευειν, agoreuein, "to speak in public") is a figurative mode of representation conveying a meaning other than and in addition to the literal. Through allegory a subject of a higher spiritual order is described in terms of that of a lower which is made out to resemble it in properties and circumstances, the principal subject being so kept out of view that we are left to construe the drift of it from the resemblance of the secondary to the primary subject. Allegory is generally treated as a figure of rhetoric, but an allegory does not have to be expressed in language: it may be addressed to the eye, and is often found in painting, sculpture or some form of mimetic art. The etymological meaning of the word is wider than that which it bears in actual use. Though it is similar to other rhetorical comparisons, an allegory is sustained longer and more full in its details than a metaphor, and appeals to imagination where an analogy appeals to reason. The fable or parable is a short allegory with one definite moral. Northrop Frye discussed the continuum of allegory from what he termed the "naive allegory" of The Faerie Queen to the more private allegories of modern paradox literature. The characters in a "naive" allegory are not fully three dimensional, for each aspect of their individual personalities and the events that befall them embodies some moral quality or other abstraction. The allegory has been selected first: the details merely flesh it out. Since meaningful stories are always applicable to larger issues, allegories may be read into many significant stories, sometimes distorting their author's overt meaning. J.R.R. Tolkien's distaste for allegory is famous: many people have suggested that Lord of the Rings was an allegory for the World Wars, an interpretation which the author sharply denied. The allegory has been a favourite form in the literature of nearly every nation. The Hebrew scriptures present frequent instances of it, one of the most beautiful being the comparison of the history of Israel to the growth of a vine in . In the Rabbinic tradition fully-developed allegorical readings were applied to every text, with every detail of the narrative given an emblematic reading, a tradition that was inherited by Christian writers, for whom allegorical similitudes are the basis of exegesis, the origin of the arts of hermeneutics. The late Jewish and Early Christian visionary Apocalyptic literature, with its base in the Book of Daniel, presents allegorical figures, of which the Whore of Babylon and the Beast of Revelation are simply the most familiar. In classical literature two of the best known allegories are the cave of shadowy representations in Plato's Republic (Book VII) and the story of the stomach and its members in the speech of Menenius Agrippa (Livy ii. 32); and several occur in Ovid's Metamorphoses. In Late Antiquity Martianus Capella organized all the information a 5th-century upper-class male needed to know into an allegory of the wedding of Mercury and Philologia, with the seven liberal arts as guests, an allegory that was widely read through the Middle Ages. Medieval thinking accepted allegory as having a reality underlying any rhetorical or fictional uses. The allegory was as true as superficial facts. Thus, the bull Unam Sanctam (1302) presents themes of the unity of Christendom with the pope as its head in which the allegorical details of the metaphors are adduced as actual facts which take the place of a logical demonstration, employing the vocabulary of logic:"Therefore of this one and only Church there is one body and one head—not two heads as if it were a monster... If, then, the Greeks or others say that they were not committed to the care of Peter and his successors, they necessarily confess that they are not of the sheep of Christ" [http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Unam_sanctam (complete text)]. In the late 15th century, the enigmatic Hypnerotomachia, with its elaborate woodcut illustrations, shows the influence of themed pageants and masques on contemporary allegorical representation, as humanist dialectic conveyed them. Some elaborate and successful specimens of allegory are to be found in the following works, arranged in approximately chronological order:
- Aesop – Fables
- Plato – The Republic (Plato's allegory of the cave)
- Plato – Phaedrus (Chariot Allegory)
- Book of Revelation
- Martianus Capella – De nuptiis philologiæ et Mercurii
- The Romance of the Rose
- William Langland – Piers Plowman
- John Steinbeck – The Pearl
- Dante Alighieri – The Divine Comedy
- Edmund Spenser – The Faerie Queene
- John Bunyan – Pilgrim's Progress
- Jean de La Fontaine – Fables
- Edgar Allan Poe – The Masque of the Red Death
- Jonathan Swift – A Tale of a Tub
- Joseph Addison – Vision of Mirza Modern allegories in fiction tend to operate under constraints of modern requirements for verisimilitude within conventional expectations of realism. Works of fiction with strong allegorical overtones include:
- William Golding – Lord of the Flies
- George Orwell – Animal Farm
- Arthur Miller – The Crucible
- Philip Pullman – His Dark Materials
- Hualing Nieh – Mulberry and Peach Where the requirements of "realism", in its flexible meanings, are set aside, allegory comes more strongly to the surface, as in the work of Bertold Brecht or Franz Kafka on one hand, or in science fiction and fantasy, where an element of universal application and allegorical overtones are the norm, from Dune to The Chronicles of Narnia. Allegorical films include:
- Fritz Lang's Metropolis
- Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal
- El Topo etc. Allegorical artworks include:
- Sandro Botticelli – La Primavera (Allegory of Spring)
- Albrecht Dürer – Melancholia I
- Artemisia Gentileschi – Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting; Allegory of Inclination
- Jan Vermeer – The Allegory of Painting

External links

- [http://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/lit_terms/allegory.html Good brief definition of Allegory]
- [http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/cgi-local/DHI/dhi.cgi?id=dv1-07 Dictionary of the History of Ideas:] Allegory in Literary history
- [http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/ElAnt/V1N5/levis.html Electronic Antiquity, Richard Levis, "Allegory and the Eclogues"] Roman definitions of allegoria and interpreting Vergil's Eclogues.

Symbol

:For the Romanian choir, see Symbol (choir) A symbol, in its basic sense, is a conventional representation of a concept or quantity; i.e., an idea, object, concept, quality, etc. In more psychological and philosophical terms, all concepts are symbolic in nature, and representations for these concepts are simply token artifacts that are allegorical to (but do not directly codify) a symbolic meaning, or symbolism. Spoken language, for example, consists of distinct auditory tokens for representing symbolic concepts (words), arranged in an order which further suggests their meaning.

Nature of symbols

word]A symbol can be a material object whose shape or origin is related, by nature or convention, to the thing it represents: for instance, the cross is the main symbol of Christianity, and the scepter is a traditional symbol of royal power. A symbol can also be a more or less conventional image (i.e. an icon), or a detail of an image, or even a pattern or color: for example, the olive branch in heraldry represents peace, the halo is a conventional symbol of sainthood in Christian imagery, tartans are symbols of Scottish clans, and the color red is often used as a symbol for socialist movements, especially communism. More often, a symbol is a conventional written or printed sign (specifically, a glyph), usually standing for anything other than a sound (symbols for sounds are usually called graphemes, letters, logograms, diacritics, etc.). Thus mathematical symbols such as π and + represent quantities and operations, currency symbols represent monetary units, chemical symbols represent elements, and so forth. Symbols can also be immaterial entities like sounds, words and gestures. The ringing of gongs and bells, and the banging of a judge's gavel, often have conventional meanings in certain contexts; and bowing is a common way to indicate respect. In fact, every word in a natural language is a symbol for some concept or relationship between concepts. A symbol is usually recognized only within some specific culture, religion, or discipline, but a few hundred symbols are now recognized internationally. See list of common symbols and List of symbols.

Use of symbols

Human beings' ability to manipulate symbols allows them to explore the relationships between ideas, things, concepts, and qualities - far beyond the explorations of which any other species on earth is capable. The discipline of semiotics studies symbols and symbol systems in general; semantics is specifically concerned with the main meaning of words or other linguistic units. Literary works are often admired for their artful use of symbolism, i.e. the use of words, phrases and situations to evoke ideas and feelings beyond their plain interpretations; these uses are the subject of literary semiotics. Religious and metaphysical writings are also known for their use of esoteric symbolism. Alchemical writings made extensive use of symbols for spiritual and chemical processes (which they also saw as symbols of each other). The interpretation of dreams as symbols of one's experiences is a main feature of Freudian psychoanalysis and Jungian analytical psychology.

Etymology

The word "symbol" came to the English language, by way of Middle English, Old French, and Latin, from the Greek σύμβολον súmbolon from the root words σύμ- (sym-) meaning "together" and βολή bolḗ "a throw", having the approximate meaning of "to throw together", so "sign, ticket, or contract".

External links

- [http://www.symbols.com Symbol search engine]
- [http://altreligion.about.com/library/glossary/blsymbols.htm Religious and Cultural Symbols]
- ja:シンボル simple:Symbol

IDEA

IDEA may refer to: #Electronic Directory of the European Institutions #IDEA League #Improvement and Development Agency #Individuals with Disabilities Education Act #Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance #Integrated Data Environments Australia #Intelligent Database Environment for Advanced Applications #IntelliJ IDEA - a Java IDE #Interactive Database for Energy-efficient Architecture #International Data Encryption Algorithm #International Debate Education Association #International Diving Educators Association #International Drama/Theatre and Education Association #Internet Delivery and Applications #Industrial Design Excellence Awards See also: Idea

Santiago de Compostela

Santiago de Compostela (2003 pop. 92,339), the "European City of Culture" for the year 2000, is located in the northwest region of Spain in the province of A Coruña. It is the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia. The city's cathedral is the destination of the important medieval pilgrimage route, the Way of St James (in Spanish the Camino de Santiago), which is still walked today.

The city

The cathedral fronts on the main Plaza of the old and well-preserved city. Across the square is the Palacio de Rajoi (Rajoi's Palace,) the town hall, and on the right from the cathedral steps is the Hostal de Los Reyes Católicos, founded in 1492 by the Catholic Kings, Isabela and Fernando, as a pilgrim's hospice. Today, this beautiful Renaissance building with four cloisters serves as a luxurious hotel. The Obradoiro façade of the cathedral, the best known, is depicted on the Spanish euro coins of 1 cent, 2 cents, and 5 cents (€0.01, €0.02, and €0.05). Santiago also has a fine University which can be seen best from an alcove in the large municipal park in the centre of the city. The University ensures youthful night life. Within the old town there are many narrow winding streets full of historic buildings. The new town all around it has less character though some of the older parts of the new town have some big apartments in them. Santiago gives its name to one of the four military orders of Spain: Compostela, Calatrava, Alcantara and Montesa. The prevailing wind from the Atlantic and the surrounding mountains combine to give Santiago some of Europe's highest rainfall: about 66 inches annually.

The etymology of the name Compostela

The popular etymology of the name "Compostela" holds that it comes from Latin campus stellae, i.e. "field of stars", making Santiago de Compostela "St. James in the Field of Stars". This name would come from the belief that the bones of St. James were taken from the Middle East, to Spain. These bones were then buried where a shepherd had spotted a star and a church was eventually built over the bones and later replaced with the Cathedral de Santiago de Compostela. Another etymology is Compositum, i.e. "The well founded", or Composita Tella, meaning "burial ground". Yet another etymology derives it from "San Jacome Apostol".

History of the shrine and the pilgrimage

The burial place of St. James

"Santiago" ("Sant' Iago") means "St. James", and the city is supposedly the final resting place of the Apostle Saint James the Great, the brother of John. His remains are said to be beneath the altar in the crypt of the cathedral. According to another theory the actual remains in the crypt belong to Priscillian, an ascetic from Avila who was beheaded as a heretic at Treves, France, in 385 AD, but was venerated as a martyr in Galicia and other parts of northern Spain. The Roman Catholic Church affirms that the belief that St James had found his way to the Iberian peninsula, and had preached there, was current before AD. 400. According to a tradition that cannot be traced before the 12th century, the relics were said to have been discovered in 835 by Theodomir, bishop of Iria Flavia in the far northwest of the principality of Asturias. Theodomir was guided to the spot by a star, the legend affirmed, drawing upon a familiar myth-element, hence "Compostela" was given an etymology as a corruption of Campus Stellae, "Plain of the Star."

The establishment of the shrine

Whose bones were actually found, and precisely when and how, may be unknowable, and perhaps it does not matter. What the history of the pilgrimage requires, but what the meager sources fail to reveal, is how the local Galician cult associated with the saint was transformed into an international cult drawing pilgrims from distant parts of Christendom. At Santiago itself, a building more substantial than the first shrine was begun in 868, but was totally destroyed in 997 by the Moors, who, however, respected the sacred relics. On the reconquest of the city by Bermudo III of Leon (died 1037), the roads that led pilgrims from across northern Spain to the shrine were improved, and the reputation of the shrine spread.

The pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela

:Main article: Way of St. James. The earliest recorded pilgrims from beyond the Pyrenees had visited the shrine in the middle of the 10th century, but it seem that it was not until a century later that pilgrims from abroad were regularly journeying there in large numbers, even the first recorded pilgrims from England, between 1092 and 1105. By the early 12th century the pilgrimage was a highly organized affair. Four established pilgrimage routes from starting points in France converged in the Basque country of the western Pyrenees. From there a single combined track crossed northern Spain, linking Burgos, Carrión, Sahagún, León, Astorga and Lugo. Diverse requirements of the pilgrim trade were met by a series of hospices along the way, by royal protection of such a lucrative source of revenue, by the evolution of a new genre of Romanesque ecclesiastical architecture designed to cope with huge devout crowds; and by the familiar paraphernalia of tourism, selling badges and souvenirs, and the remarkable guide-book put together in about 1140. The pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela internationalized the entire route to a degree unheard of in this impoverished and isolated backwater on the outermost fringes of Europe, which was opened most particularly to the influence of France, whence the great majority of pilgrims always came. Enterprising French people settled in the pilgrimage towns, where their names crop up in the archives. Pilgrims would walk Way of St James for months to arrive finally at the great church in the main square to pay homage, and so many pilgrims have laid their hands on the pillar just inside the doorway to rest their weary bones, that a groove has been worn in the stone. So numerous were the pilgrims that the popular Spanish name for the Milky Way is El Camino de Santiago. Recent scholarship also posits that the Milky Way - "El Camino de Santiago" link may also have roots in the revival of goddess worship in Spain during this time. The Galician government hopes to make the Way into a powerful tourism destination. For the Holy Compostellan Year: whenever July 25 is a Sunday, the Xacobeo campaign is reinforced.

Pre-Christian legends

As the lowest-lying land on that stretch of coast, the city's site took on added significance. Legends supposed of Celtic origin made it the place where the souls of the dead gathered to follow the Sun across the sea. Those unworthy of going to the Land of the Dead haunted Galicia as the Santa Compaña.

The cathedral

:Main article: Catedral de Santiago de Compostela. At the front of the Baroque cathedral, a golden mollusc shell adorns the altar. A steady stream of pilgrims still queue there to kiss the shell, as another sign of homage. The cathedral preserves its original barrel-vaulted cruciform Romanesque interior. Perhaps the chief beauty of the cathedral, however, is the 12th-century Portico de la Gloria, behind the Late Baroque facade. The shafts, tympana and archivolts of the three doorways which open onto the nave and aisles are a mass of strong and nervous sculpture representing the Last Judgment. Faint traces of color remain. The cathedral's facade (illustration, right) gains from forming part of an extended architectural composition on the Plaza del Obradoiro, a grand square surrounded by public buildings. The ground rises to the cathedral, which is reached by a magnificent quadruple flight of steps, flanked by statues of David and Solomon. Access to the staircase is through some fine wrought-iron gates, and in the centre, on the level of the Plaza, is the entrance to a Romanesque chapel, the Iglesia Baja ("Lower Church"), constructed under the portico and contemporary with the cathedral. To the north and south, and in a line with the west front, are dependent buildings of the 18th century, grouping well with it. Those to the south contain a light and elegant arcade to the upper windows, and serve as a screen to the late Gothic cloisters, built in 1533 by Fonseca, afterwards archbishop of Toledo. They are said to be the largest in Spain. The north side of the cathedral is in the rich Spanish Baroque style called Churrigueresque. In the cathedral's Capilla del Relicario ("Chapel of the Reliquary") is a gold crucifix, dated 874, containing a piece of the True Cross.

External links

- [http://www.santiago-today.com www.santiago-today.com, Tourist related news from Santiago de Compostela]
- [http://www.santiagodecompostela.org/english.php?lg=ing Official site of the city of Santiago de Compostela]
- [http://www.crtvg.es/ingles/camweb/priportadaeleccion.htm Live Cam of Galicia from CRTVG including the Cathedral]
- [http://www.csj.org.uk Confraternity of St. James]
- [http://www.santiago-compostela.net/ The pilgrimage route described for the modern backpacker, with photos.]
- [http://www.backpack45.com/camino2.html www.backpack45.com/camino2.html - English language based site with planning information for walking the Camino Francès]
- [http://groups.msn.com/ElCaminoSantiago http://Groups.msn.com/ElCamino Santiago: An English language site full of resources for The Pilgimage Way to Santiago]
- [http://community.webshots.com/user/ElCaminoSantiago Over 1600 high res photographs of the Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela] Category:Catholic pilgrimage sites Category:Holy cities category:Galicia (Spain) als:Santiago de Compostela ja:サンティアゴ・デ・コンポステーラ

Symbol

Nature of symbols

Use of symbols

Etymology

External links

- [http://www.symbols.com Symbol search engine]
- [http://altreligion.about.com/library/glossary/blsymbols.htm Religious and Cultural Symbols]
- ja:シンボル simple:Symbol

International Red Cross

emblems, the symbols from which the Movement derives its name]] The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement consists of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (Federation), and the 183 national Red Cross or Red Crescent societies currently recognized by the ICRC and admitted as full members of the Federation. All of these organizations are legally independent from each other, but are united within the movement through common basic principles, objectives, symbols, statutes, and governing organs. The movement is voluntary and non-governmental. Its stated mission is to protect human life and health, to ensure respect for the human being, and to prevent and alleviate human suffering, without any discrimination based on nationality, race, religious beliefs, class or political opinions. Recently, it has finally ended its dispute with Israel with the inclusion of a secular red crystal. The International Committee of the Red Cross has a membership of a maximum of 25 Swiss citizens and is the only institution explicitly named under international humanitarian law (IHL) as a controlling authority. Like the Holy See and the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order (Knights Hospitaller), it is a rare example of a non-governmental sovereign entity. Its sole humanitarian mission, based on the principles of impartiality, neutrality, and independence, is the protection of the life and dignity of the victims of international and internal armed conflicts. The main task of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies is to coordinate cooperation between different national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies within the movement. On the international level, the federation leads and organizes, in close cooperation with the national societies, relief assistance missions responding to large-scale emergencies. National Red Cross and Red Crescent societies exist in nearly every country in the world. Each entity works in its home country according to the principles of international humanitarian law and the statutes of the International Movement. Depending on their specific circumstances and capacities, national societies can take on additional humanitarian tasks that are not directly defined by international humanitarian law or the mandates of the International Movement. See the list of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies to find information about a particular national society. The term International Red Cross and the respective acronym IRC is actually a misnomer, as no official organization exists bearing that name. Furthermore, the use of this label can result in confusion regarding the distinction between the ICRC and the Federation, potentially adversely politicizing its efforts.

History of the Movement

The International Committee of the Red Cross

Solferino, Henry Dunant and the foundation of the ICRC

list of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies"]] Up until the middle of the 19^th century, there were no organized and well-established army nursing systems for casualties and no safe and protected institutions to accommodate and treat those who were wounded on the battlefield. In June 1859, the Swiss businessman Henry Dunant traveled to Italy to meet French emperor Napoléon III with the intention of discussing difficulties in conducting business in Algeria, at that time occupied by France. When he arrived in the small town of Solferino on the evening of June 24, he witnessed the Battle of Solferino, an engagement in the Austro-Sardinian War. In a single day, about 40,000 soldiers on both sides died or were left wounded on the field. Henry Dunant was shocked by the terrible aftermath of the battle, the suffering of the wounded soldiers, and the near-total lack of medical attendance and basic care. He completely abandoned the original intent of his trip and for several days he devoted himself to helping with the treatment and care for the wounded. He succeeded in organizing an overwhelming level of relief assistance by motivating the local population to aid without discrimination. Back in his home in Geneva, he decided to write a book entitled A Memory of Solferino which he published with his own money in 1862. He sent copies of the book to leading political and military figures throughout Europe. In addition to penning a vivid description of his experiences in Solferino in 1859, he explicitly advocated the formation of national voluntary relief organizations to help nurse wounded soldiers in the case of war. In addition, he called for the development of international treaties to guarantee the neutrality and protection of those wounded on the battlefield as well as medics and field hospitals. Europe On February 9, 1863 in Geneva, Henry Dunant founded the "Committee of the Five" (together with four other leading figures from well-known Geneva families) as an investigatory commission of the Geneva Society for Public Welfare. Their aim was to examine the feasibility of Dunant's ideas and to organize an international conference about their possible implementation. The members of this committee, aside from Dunant himself, were Gustave Moynier, lawyer and chairman of the Geneva Society for Public Welfare; physician Louis Appia, who had significant experience working as a field surgeon; Appia's friend and colleague Théodore Maunoir, from the Geneva Hygiene and Health Commission; and Guillaume-Henri Dufour, a Swiss Army general of great renown. Eight days later, the five men decided to rename the committee to the "International Committee for Relief to Wounded Soldiers." In October (26-29) 1863, the international conference organized by the committee was held in Geneva to develop possible measures to improve medical services on the battle field. The conference was attended by 36 individuals: eighteen official delegates from national governments, six delegates from other non-governmental organizations, seven non-official foreign delegates, and the five members of the International Committee. The states and kingdoms represented by official delegates were Baden, Bavaria, France, Britain, Hanover, Hesse, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Prussia, Russia, Saxony, Sweden, and Spain. Among the proposals written in the final resolutions of the conference, adopted on October 29, 1863, were:
- The foundation of national relief societies for wounded soldiers;
- Neutrality and protection for wounded soldiers;
- The utilization of volunteer forces for relief assistance on the battlefield;
- The organization of additional conferences to enact these concepts in legally binding international treaties; and
- The introduction of a common distinctive protection symbol for medical personnel in the field, namely a white armlet bearing a red cross. October 29; jointly erected in 1989 by the national Red Cross societies of Denmark and Germany.]] Only one year later, the Swiss government invited the governments of all European countries, as well as the United States, Brazil, and Mexico, to attend an official diplomatic conference. 16 countries sent a total of 26 delegates to Geneva. On August 22, 1864, the conference adopted the first Geneva Convention "for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded in Armies in the Field." Representatives of 12 states and kingdoms signed the convention: Baden, Belgium, Denmark, France, Hesse, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Prussia, Switzerland, Spain, and Württemberg. The convention contained ten articles, establishing for the first time legally binding rules guaranteeing neutrality and protection for wounded soldiers, field medical personnel, and specific humanitarian institutions in an armed conflict. Furthermore, the convention defined two specific requirements for recognition of a national relief society by the International Committee:
- The national society must be recognized by its own national government as a relief society according to the convention, and
- The national government of the respective country must be a state party to the Geneva Convention. Directly following the establishment of the Geneva Convention, the first national societies were founded in Belgium, Denmark, France, Oldenburg, Prussia, Spain, and Württemberg. Also in 1864, Louis Appia and Charles Van de Velde, a captain of the Dutch Army, became the first independent and neutral delegates to work under the symbol of the Red Cross in an armed conflict. Three years later in 1867, the first International Conference of National Aid Societies for the Nursing of the War Wounded was convened. Also in 1867, Henry Dunant was forced to declare bankruptcy due to business failures in Algeria, partly because he had neglected his business interests during his tireless activities for the International Committee. Controversy surrounding Dunant's business dealings and the resulting negative public opinion combined with an ongoing conflict with Gustave Moynier led to Dunant's expulsion from his position as a member and secretary. He was forced to leave Geneva and never returned to his home city. In the following years, national societies were founded in nearly every country in Europe. In 1876, the committee adopted the name "International Committee of the Red Cross" (ICRC), which is still its official designation today. Five years later, the American Red Cross was founded through the efforts of Clara Barton. More and more countries signed the Geneva Convention and began to respect it in practice during armed conflicts. In a rather short period of time, the Red Cross gained huge momentum as an internationally respected movement, and the national societies became increasingly popular as a venue for volunteer work. When the first Nobel Peace Prize was awarded in 1901, the Norwegian Nobel Committee opted to give it jointly to Henry Dunant and Frédéric Passy, a leading international pacifist. More significant than the honor of the prize itself, the official congratulation from the International Committee of the Red Cross marked the overdue rehabilitation of Henry Dunant and represented a tribute to his key role in the formation of the Red Cross. Dunant died nine years later in the small Swiss health resort of Heiden. Only two months earlier his long standing adversary Gustave Moynier had also died, leaving a mark in the history of the Committee as its longest-running president ever. In 1906, the 1864 Geneva Convention was revised for the first time. One year later, the Hague Convention X, adopted at the second International Peace Konferenz in The Hague, extended the scope of the Geneva Convention to naval warfare. Shortly before the beginning of the First World War in 1914, 50 years after the foundation of the ICRC and the adoption of the first Geneva Convention, there were already 45 national relief societies throughout the world. The movement had extended itself beyond Europe and North America to Central and South America (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Mexico, Peru, El Salvador, Uruguay, Venezuela), Asia (China, Japan, Korea, Siam), and Africa (Republic of South Africa).

The ICRC during World War One

Republic of South Africa With the outbreak of World War One, the ICRC found itself confronted with enormous challenges which it could only handle by working closely with the national Red Cross societies. Red Cross nurses from around the world, including the United States and Japan, came to support the medical services of the armed forces of the European countries involved in the war. On October 15, 1914, immediately after the start of the war, the ICRC set up its International Prisoners-of-War (POW) Agency, which had about 1,200 mostly volunteer staff members by the end of 1914. By the end of the war, the Agency had transferred about 20 million letters and messages, 1.9 million parcels, and about 18 million Swiss francs in monetary donations to POWs of all affected countries. Furthermore, due to the intervention of the Agency, about 200,000 prisoners were exchanged between the warring parties, released from captivity and returned to their home country. The organizational card index of the Agency accumulated about 7 million records from 1914 to 1923, each card representing an individual prisoner or missing person. The card index led to the identification of about 2 million POWs and the ability to contact their families. The complete index is on loan today from the ICRC to the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum in Geneva. The right to access the index is still strictly restricted to the ICRC. During the entire war, the ICRC monitored warring parties’ compliance with the Geneva Conventions of the 1907 revision and forwarded complaints about violations to the respective country. When chemical weapons were used in this war for the first time in history, the ICRC vigorously protested against this new type of warfare. Even without having a mandate from the Geneva Conventions, the ICRC tried to ameliorate the suffering of civil populations. In territories that were officially designated as "occupied territories," the ICRC could assist the civilian population on the basis of the Hague Convention's "Laws and Customs of War on Land" of 1907. This convention was also the legal basis for the ICRC's work for prisoners of war. In addition to the work of the International Prisoner-of-War Agency as described above this included inspection visits to POW camps. A total of 524 camps throughout Europe were visited by 41 delegates from the ICRC until the end of the war. Between 1916 and 1918, the ICRC published a number of postcards with scenes from the POW camps. The pictures showed the prisoners in day-to-day activities such as the distribution of letters from home. The intention of the ICRC was to provide the families of the prisoners with some hope and solace and to alleviate their uncertainties about the fate of their loved ones. After the end of the war, the ICRC organized the return of about 420,000 prisoners to their home countries. In 1920, the task of repatriation was handed over to the newly founded League of Nations, which appointed the Norwegian diplomat and scientist Fridtjof Nansen as its "High Commissioner for Repatriation of the War Prisoners." His legal mandate was later extended to support and care for war refugees and displaced persons when his office became that of the League of Nations "High Commissioner for Refugees." Nansen, who invented the Nansen passport for stateless refugees and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1922, appointed two delegates from the ICRC as his deputies. A year before the end of the war, the ICRC received the 1917 Nobel Peace Prize for its outstanding wartime work. It was the only Nobel Peace Prize awarded in the period from 1914 to 1918. In 1923, the Committee adopted a change in its policy regarding the selection of new members. Until then, only citizens from the city of Geneva could serve in the Committee. This limitation was expanded to include Swiss citizens. As a direct consequence of World War One, an additional protocol to the Geneva Convention was adopted in 1925 which outlawed the use of suffocating or poisonous gases and biological agents as weapons. Four years later, the 1906 Convention was revised and the second Geneva Convention "relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War" was established. The events of World War One and the respective activities of the ICRC significantly increased the reputation and authority of the Committee among the international community and led to an extension of its competencies. As early as in 1934, a draft proposal for an additional convention for the protection of the civil population during an armed conflict was adopted by the International Red Cross Conference. Unfortunately, most governments had not enough interests in implementing this convention, preventing it from entering into force before the beginning of World War Two.

The ICRC and World War Two

World War Two, 1940]] The legal basis of the work of the ICRC during World War II were the Geneva Conventions in their 1929 revision. The activities of the Committee were similar to those during World War I: visiting and monitoring POW camps, organizing relief assistance for civilian populations, and administering the exchange of messages regarding prisoners and missing persons. By the end of the war, 179 delegates had conducted 12,750 visits to POW camps in 41 countries. The Central Information Agency on Prisoners-of-War (Zentralauskunftsstelle für Kriegsgefangene) had a staff of 3,000, the card index tracking prisoners contained 45 million cards, and 120 million messages were exchanged by the Agency. One major obstacle was that the Nazi-controlled German Red Cross refused to cooperate with the Geneva statutes including blatant violations such as the deportation of Jews from Germany and the mass murders conducted in the concentration camps run by the German government. Moreover, two other main aggressors, the Soviet Union and Japan, were not party to the 1929 Geneva Conventions and were not legally required to follow the rules of the conventions. Thus, other countries were not bound to follow the Conventions regarding their prisoners in return. During the war, the ICRC failed to obtain an agreement with Nazi Germany about the treatment of detainees in concentration camps, and it eventually abandoned applying pressure in order to avoid disrupting its work with POWs. The ICRC also failed to develop a response to reliable information about the extermination camps and the mass killing of European Jews. This is still considered the greatest failure of the ICRC in its history. After November 1943, the ICRC achieved permission to send parcels to concentration camp detainees with known names and locations. Because the notices of receipt for these parcels were often signed by other inmates, the ICRC managed to register the identities of about 105,000 detainees in the concentration camps and delivered about 1.1 million parcels, primarily to the camps Dachau, Buchenwald, Ravensbrück, and Sachsenhausen. Sachsenhausen On March 12, 1945, ICRC president Jacob Burckhardt received a message from SS General Ernst Kaltenbrunner accepting the ICRC's demand to allow delegates to visit the concentration camps. This agreement was bound by the condition that these delegates would have to stay in the camps until the end of the war. Ten delegates, among them Louis Haefliger (Camp Mauthausen), Paul Dunant (Camp Theresienstadt) and Victor Maurer (Camp Dachau), accepted the assignment and visited the camps. Louis Haefliger courageously prevented the forceful eviction or blasting of Mauthausen-Gusen by alerting American troops, thereby saving the lives of about 60,000 inmates. His actions were condemned by the ICRC because they were deemed as acting unduly on his own authority and risking the ICRC's neutrality. Only in 1990, his reputation was finally rehabilitated by ICRC president Cornelio Sommaruga. Another example of great humanitarian spirit was Friedrich Born (1903-1963), an ICRC delegate in Budapest who saved the lives of about 11,000 to 15,000 Jewish people in Hungary. On June 5, 1987, he was posthumously granted the title of "Righteous Among the Nations" by Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority. Marcel Junod (1904-1961), a physician from Geneva, was another famous delegate during the Second World War. An account of his experiences, which included being one of the first foreigners to visit Hiroshima after the atomic bomb was dropped, can be found in the book Warrior without Weapons. In 1944, the ICRC received its second Nobel Peace Prize. As in World War I, it received the only Peace Prize awarded during the main period of war, 1939 to 1945. At the end of the war, the ICRC worked with national Red Cross societies to organize relief assistance to those countries most severely affected. In 1948, the Committee published a report reviewing its war-era activities from September 1, 1939 to June 30, 1947. Since January 1996, the ICRC archive for this period has been open to academic and public research.

The ICRC after the Second World War

1996 On August 12, 1949, further revisions to the existing two Geneva Conventions were adopted. An additional convention "for the Amelioration of the Condition of Wounded, Sick and Shipwrecked Members of Armed Forces at Sea", named the second Geneva Convention, was added to succeed the 1907 Hague Convention X. The 1929 convention "relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War", while being the second Geneva Convention from a historical point of view, became the third convention in the context of the 1949 revisions. Reacting to the experience of World War II, the Fourth Geneva Convention, a new Convention "relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War," was established. Also, the additional protocols of June 8, 1977 were intended to make the conventions apply to internal conflicts such as civil wars. Today, the four conventions and their added protocols contain more than 600 articles, a remarkable expansion when compared to the mere 10 articles in the first 1864 convention. In celebration of its centennial in 1963, the ICRC, together with the League of Red Cross societies, received its third Nobel Peace Prize. Since 1993, non-Swiss individuals have been allowed to serve as Committee delegates abroad, a task which was previously restricted to Swiss citizens. Indeed, since then, the share of staff without Swiss citizenship has increased to about 35%. On October 16, 1990, the UN General Assembly decided to grant the ICRC observer status for its assembly sessions and sub-committee meetings, the first observer status given to a private organization. The resolution was jointly proposed by 138 member states and introduced by the Italian ambassador, Vieri Traxler, in memory of the organization's origins in the Battle of Solferino. An agreement with the Swiss government signed on March 19, 1993, affirmed the already long-standing policy of full independence of the Committee from any possible interference by Switzerland. The agreement protects the full sanctity of all ICRC property in Switzerland including its headquarters and archive, grants members and staff legal immunity, exempts the ICRC from all taxes and fees, guarantees the protected and duty-free transfer of goods, services, and money, provides the ICRC with secure communication privileges at the same level as foreign embassies, and simplifies Committee travel in and out of Switzerland. At the end of the Cold War, the ICRC's work actually became more dangerous. In the 1990s, more delegates lost their lives than at any point in its history, especially when working in local and internal armed conflicts. These incidents often demonstrated a lack of respect for the rules of the Geneva Conventions and their protection symbols. Among the slain delegates were:
- Frédéric Maurice. He died on May 19, 1992 at the age of 39, one day after a Red Cross transport he was escorting was attacked in the former Yugoslavian city of Sarajevo.
- Fernanda Calado (Spain), Ingeborg Foss (Norway), Nancy Malloy (Canada), Gunnhild Myklebust (Norway), Sheryl Thayer (New Zealand), and Hans Elkerbout (Netherlands). They were murdered at point-blank range while sleeping in the early hours of December 17, 1996 in the ICRC field hospital in the Chechen city of Nowije Atagi near Grozny. Their murderers have never been caught and there was no apparent motive for the killings.
- Rita Fox (Switzerland), Véronique Saro (Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly Zaire), Julio Delgado (Colombia), Unen Ufoirworth (DR Congo), Aduwe Boboli (DR Congo), and Jean Molokabonge (DR Congo). On April 26, 2001, they were en route with two cars on a relief mission in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo when they came under fatal fire from unknown attackers.
- Ricardo Munguia (El Salvador). He was working as a water engineer in Afghanistan and travelling with local colleagues when their car was stopped by unknown armed men. He was killed execution-style at point-blank range while his colleagues were allowed to escape. He died at the age of 39.
- Vatche Arslanian (Canada). Since 2001, he worked as a logistics coordinator for the ICRC mission in Iraq. He died when he was travelling through Baghdad together with members of the Iraqi Red Crescent. Their car accidentally came into the cross fire of fighting in the city.
- Nadisha Yasassri Ranmuthu (Sri Lanka). He was killed by unknown attackers on July 22, 2003 when his car was fired upon near the city of Hilla in the south of Baghdad.

Presidents of the ICRC

Since 2000, the president of the ICRC has been Jakob Kellenberger. Anne Petitpierre and Jacques Forster serve as the vice presidents. The former presidents of the Committee have been:
- 1863 - 1864: Henri Dufour
- 1864 - 1910: Gustave Moynier
- 1910 - 1928: Gustave Ador
- 1928 - 1944: Max Huber
- 1944 - 1948: Carl Jacob Burckhardt
- 1948 - 1955: Paul Ruegger
- 1955 - 1964: Leopold Boissier
- 1964 - 1969: Samuel Gonard
- 1969 - 1973: Marcel Naville
- 1973 - 1976: Eric Martin
- 1976 - 1987: Alexandre Hay
- 1987 - 1999: Cornelio Sommaruga

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

History

Jacques Forster In 1919, representatives from the national Red Cross societies of Britain, France, Italy, Japan, and the US came together in Paris to found the "League of Red Cross Societies". The original idea was Henry Davison's, then president of the American Red Cross. This move, led by the American Red Cross, expanded the international activities of the Red Cross movement beyond the strict mission of the ICRC to include relief assistance in response to emergency situations which were not caused by war (such as man-made or natural disasters). The ARC already had great disaster relief mission experience extending back to its foundation. The formation of the League, as an additional international Red Cross organization alongside the ICRC, was not without controversy for a number of reasons. The ICRC had, to some extent valid, concerns about a possible rivalry between both organizations. The foundation of the League was seen as an attempt to undermine the leadership position of the ICRC within the movement and to gradually transfer most of its tasks and competencies to a multilateral institution. In addition to that, all founding members of the League were national societies from countries of the Entente or from associated partners of the Entente. The original statutes of the League from May 1919 contained further regulations which gave the five founding societies a privileged status and, due to the efforts of Henry P. Davison, the right to permanently exclude the national Red Cross societies from the countries of the Central Powers, namely Germany, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey, and in addition to that the national Red Cross society of Russia. These rules were contrary to the Red Cross principles of universality and equality among all national societies, a situation which furthered the concerns of the ICRC. The first relief assistance mission organized by the League was an aid mission for the victims of a famine and subsequent typhus epidemic in Poland. Only five years after its foundation, the League had already issued 47 donation appeals for missions in 34 countries, an impressive indication of the need for this type of Red Cross work. The total sum raised by these appeals reached 685 million Swiss Francs, which were used to bring emergency supplies to the victims of famines in Russia, Germany, and Albania; earthquakes in Chile, Persia, Japan, Colombia, Ecuador, Costa Rica, and Turkey; and refugee flows in Greece and Turkey. The first large-scale disaster mission of the League came after the 1923 earthquake in Japan which killed about 200,000 people and left countless more wounded and without shelter. Due to the League's coordination, the Red Cross society of Japan received goods from its sister societies reaching a total worth of about $100 million. Another important new field initiated by the League was the creation of youth Red Cross organizations within the national societies. Greece A joint mission of the ICRC and the League in the Russian Civil War from 1917 to 1922 marked the first time the movement was involved in an internal conflict, although still without an explicit mandate from the Geneva Conventions. The League, with support from more than 25 national societies, organized assistance missions and the distribution of food and other aid goods for civil populations affected by hunger and disease. The ICRC worked with the Russian Red Cross society and later the society of the Soviet Union, constantly emphasizing the ICRC's neutrality. In 1928, the "International Council" was founded to coordinate cooperation between the ICRC and the League, a task which was later taken over by the "Standing Commission". In the same year, a common statute for the movement was adopted for the first time, defining the respective roles of the ICRC and the League within the movement. During the Abyssinian war between Ethiopia and Italy from 1935 to 1936, the League contributed aid supplies worth about 1.7 million Swiss Francs. Because the Italian fascist regime under Mussolini refused any cooperation with the Red Cross, these goods were delivered solely to Ethiopia. During the war, an estimated 29 people lost their lives while being under explicit protection of the Red Cross symbol, most of them due to attacks by the Italian Army. During the Civil War in Spain from 1936 to 1939 the League once again joined forces with the ICRC with the support of 41 national societies. In 1939 on the brink of the Second World War, the League relocated its headquarters from Paris to Geneva to take advantage of Swiss neutrality. 1939 In 1952, the 1928 common statute of the movement was revised for the first time. Also, the period of decolonization from 1960 to 1970 was marked by a huge jump in the number of recognized national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies. By the end of the 1960's, there were more than 100 societies around the world. On December 10, 1963, the Federation and the ICRC received the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1983, the League was renamed to the "League of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies" to reflect the growing number of national societies operating under the Red Crescent symbol. Three years later, the seven basic principles of the movement as adopted in 1965 were incorporated into its statutes. The name of the League was changed again in 1991 to its current official designation the "International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies". In 1997, the ICRC and the Federation signed the Seville Agreement which further defined the responsibilities of both organizations within the movement. In 2004, the Federation began its largest mission to date after the tsunami disaster in South Asia. More than 40 national societies have worked with more than 22,000 volunteers to bring relief to the countless victims left without food and shelter and endangered by the risk of epidemics.

Presidents of the Federation

Since 2001, the president of the Federation has been Don Juan Manuel Suárez Del Toro Rivero of Spain. The Vice presidents are currently René Rhinow (ex officio as president of the Swiss Red Cross society) and, representing the different core regions of the world, Robert Barnes (Canada), Murli S. Deora (India), Dr. Mamdouh Gabr (Egypt) and Dr. Massimo Barra (Italy). Former presidents (until 1977 titled "Chairman") have been:
- 1919 - 1922: Henry Davison (USA)
- 1922 - 1935: John Barton Payne (USA)
- 1935 - 1938: Cary T. Grayson (USA)
- 1938 - 1944: Norman Davis (USA)
- 1944 - 1945: Jean de Muralt (Switzerland)
- 1945 - 1950: Basil O'Connor (USA)
- 1950 - 1959: Emil Sandstrom (Sweden)
- 1959 - 1965: John MacAulay (Canada)
- 1965 - 1977: Jose Barroso (Mexico)
- 1977 - 1981: Adetunji Adefarasin (Nigeria)
- 1981 - 1987: Enrique de la Mata (Spain)
- 1987 - 1997: Mario Enrique Villarroel Lander (Venezuela)
- 1997 - 2000: Astrid N. Heiberg (Norway)

Activities

Organization of the Movement

tsunami disaster in South Asia Altogether, there are about 97 million people worldwide who serve with the ICRC, the Federation, and the national societies. And there are about 300,000 total full time staff members. The 1965 International Conference in Vienna adopted seven basic principles which should be shared by all parts of the Movement, and they were added to the official statutes of the Movement in 1986.
- Humanity
- Impartiality
- Neutrality
- Independence
- Voluntary Service
- Unity
- Universality The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Conference, which occurs once every four years, is the highest institutional body of the Movement. It gathers delegations from all of the national societies as well as from the ICRC, the Federation and the signatory states to the Geneva Conventions. In between the conferences, the Standing Commission acts as the supreme body and supervises implementation of and compliance with the resolutions of the conference. In addition, the Standing Commission coordinates the cooperation between the ICRC and the Federation. It consists of two representatives from the ICRC (including its president), two from the Federation (including its president), and five individuals who are elected by the International Conference. The Standing Commission convenes every six months on average. Moreover, a convention of the Council of Delegates of the Movement takes place every two years in the course of the conferences of the General Assemblies of the Federation. The Council of Delegates plans and coordinates joint activities for the Movement.

Activities and Organization of the ICRC

The mission of the ICRC and its responsibilities within the Movement

1986 The official mission of the ICRC as an impartial, neutral, and independent organization is to stand for the protection of the life and dignity of victims of international and internal armed conflicts. According the 1997 Seville Agreement, it is the "Lead Agency" of the Movement in conflicts. The core tasks of the Committee, which are derived from the Geneva Conventions and its own statutes, are the following:
- to monitor compliance of warring parties with the Geneva Conventions
- to organize nursing and care for those who are wounded on the battlefield
- to supervise the treatment of prisoners of war
- to help with the search for missing persons in an armed conflict (tracing service)
- to organize protection and care for civil populations
- to arbitrate between warring parties in an armed conflict

Legal status and organization

The ICRC is headquartered in the Swiss city of Geneva and has external offices in about 80 countries. It has about 12,000 staff members worldwide, about 800 of them working in its Geneva headquarters, 1,200 serving as delegates managing its international missions, and about 10,000 members of individual national societies working on site. Contrary to popular belief, the ICRC is not a non-governmental organization in the most common sense of the term, nor is it an international organization. As it limits its members (a process called cooptation) to Swiss nationals only, it does not have a policy of open and unrestricted membership for individuals like other legally defined NGOs. The word "international" in its name does not refer to its membership but to the worldwide scope of its activities as defined by the Geneva Conventions. The ICRC has special privileges and legal immunities in many countries, based on national law in these countries or through agreements between the Committee and respective national governments. According to Swiss law, the ICRC is defined as a private association. According to its statutes it consists of 15 to 25 Swiss-citizen members, which it coopts for a period of four years. There is no limit to the number of terms an individual member can have although a three-quarters majority of all members is required for re-election after the third term. The leading organs of the ICRC are the Directorate and the Assembly. The Directorate is the executive body of the Committee. It consists of a General Director and five directors in the areas of "Operations", "Human Resources", "Resources and Operational Support", "Communication", and "International Law and Cooperation within the Movement". The members of the Directorate are appointed by the Assembly to serve for four years. The Assembly, consisting of all of the members of the Committee, convenes on a regular basis and is responsible for defining aims, guidelines, and strategies and for supervising the financial matters of the Committee. The president of the Assembly is also the president of the Committee as a whole. Furthermore, the Assembly elects a five member Assembly Council which has the authority to decide on behalf of the full Assembly in some matters. The Council is also responsible for organizing the Assembly meetings and for facilitating communication between the Assembly and the Directorate. Due to Geneva's location in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, the ICRC usually acts under its French name Comité international de la Croix-Rouge (CICR). The official symbol of the ICRC is the Red Cross on white background with the words "COMITE INTERNATIONAL GENEVE" circling the cross.

Funding and financial matters

The 2005 budget of the ICRC amounts to about 970 million Swiss Francs. Most of that money comes from Switzerland in its capacity as the depositary state of the Geneva Conventions, from national Red Cross societies, the signatory states of the Geneva Conventions, and from international organizations like the European Union. All payments to the ICRC are voluntary and are received as donations based on two types of appeals issued by the Committee: an annual Headquarters Appeal to cover its internal costs and Emergency Appeals for its individual missions. The total budget for 2005 consists of about 819.7 million Swiss Francs (85% of the total) for field work and 152.1 million Swiss Francs (15%) for internal costs. In 2005, the budget for field work increased by 8.6% and the internal budget by 1.5% compared to 2004, primarily due to above average increases in the number and scope of its missions in Africa.

Activities and organization of the Federation

The Mission of the Federation and its responsibilities within the Movement

Africa The Federation coordinates cooperation between national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies throughout the world and supports the foundation of new national societies in countries where no official society exists. On the international stage, the Federation organizes and leads relief assistance missions after emergencies like natural disasters, manmade disasters, epidemics, mass refugee flights, and other emergencies. According to the 1997 Seville Agreement, the Federation is the Lead Agency of the Movement in any emergency situation which does not take place as part of an armed conflict. The Federation cooperates with the national societies of those countries affected - each called the Operating National Society (ONS) - as well as the national societies of other countries willing to offer assistance - called Participating National Societies (PNS). Among the 187 national societies admitted to the General Assembly of the Federation as full members or observers, about 25-30 regularly work as PNS in other countries. The most active of those are the American Red Cross, the British Red Cross, the German Red Cross, and the Red Cross societies of Sweden and Norway. Another major mission of the Federation which has gained attention in recent years is its commitment to work towards a codified, worldwide ban on the use of land mines and to bring medical, psychological, and social support for people injured by land mines. The tasks of the Federation can therefore be summarized as follows:
- to promote humanitarian principles and values
- to provide relief assistance in emergency situations of large magnitude
- to support the national societies with disaster preparedness through the education of voluntary members and the provision of equipment and relief supplies
- to support local health care projects
- to support the national societies with youth-related activities

Legal status and organization

Like the ICRC, the Federation has its headquarters in Geneva. It also runs 14 permanent regional offices and has more than 60 delegations around the world. The legal basis for the work of the Federation is its constitution. The executive body of the Federation is a secretariat, led by a Secretary General. The secretariat is supported by six divisions labeled "Cooperation and development", "Disaster Management and Coordination", "External Relations", "Support Services", "Monitoring and Evaluation", and "Governance and Planning". The Governance and Planning division organizes interaction and cooperation with the ICRC. The highest body of the Federation is the General Assembly which convenes every two years with delegates from all of the national societies. Among other tasks, the General Assembly elects the Secretary General. Between the convening of General Assemblies, the Governing Board is the leading body of the Federation. It has the authority to make decisions for the Federation in a number of areas. The Governing Board consists of the president and the vice presidents of the Federation, the chairman of the Finance Commission, and twenty elected representatives from national societies. It is supported by four additional commissions: "Disaster Relief", "Youth", "Health & Community Services", and "Development". The symbol of the Federation is the combination of the Red Cross (left) and Red Crescent (right) on a white background without any additional text.

Funding and financial matters

The main parts of the budget of the Federation are funded by contributions from the national societies which are members of the Federation and through revenues from its investments. The exact amount of contributions from each member society is established by the Finance Commission and approved by the General Assembly. Any additional funding, especially for unforeseen expenses for relief assistance missions, is raised by appeals published by the Federation and comes from voluntary donations by national societies, governments, other organizations, corporations, and individuals.

National societies within the Movement

Official Recognition of a national society

National Red Cross and Red Crescent societies exist in nearly every country in the world. Within their home country, they take on the duties and responsibilities of a national relief society as defined by International Humanitarian Law. Within the Movement, the ICRC is responsible for legally recognizing a relief society as an official national Red Cross or Red Crescent society. The exact rules for recognition are defined in the statutes of the Movement. Article 4 of these statutes contains the "Conditions for recognition of National Societies": : In order to be recognized in terms of Article 5, paragraph 2 b) as a National Society, the Society shall meet the following conditions: :#Be constituted on the territory of an independent State where the Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armed Forces in the Field is in force. :#Be the only National Red Cross or Red Crescent Society of the said State and be directed by a central body which shall alone be competent to represent it in its dealings with other components of the Movement. :#Be duly recognized by the legal government of its country on the basis of the Geneva Conventions and of the national legislation as a voluntary aid society, auxiliary to the public authorities in the humanitarian field. :#Have an autonomous status which allows it to operate in conformity with the Fundamental Principles of the Movement. :#Use the name and emblem of the Red Cross or Red Crescent in conformity with the Geneva Conventions. :#Be so organized as to be able to fulfill the tasks defined in its own statutes, including the preparation in peace time for its statutory tasks in case of armed conflict. :#Extend its activities to the entire territory of the State. :#Recruit its voluntary members and its staff without consideration of race, sex, class, religion or political opinions. :#Adhere to the present Statutes, share in the fellowship which unites the components of the Movement and co-operate with them. :#Respect the Fundamental Principles of the Movement and be guided in its work by the principles of international humanitarian law. After recognition by the ICRC, a national society is admitted as a member to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies.

Activities of national societies on a national and international stage

Despite formal independence regarding its organizational structure and work, each national society is still bound by the laws of its home country. In many countries, national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies enjoy exceptional privileges due to agreements with their governments or specific "Red Cross Laws" granting full independence as required by the International Movement. The duties and responsibilities of a national society as defined by International Humanitarian Law and the statutes of the Movement include humanitarian aid in armed conflicts and emergency crises such as natural disasters. Depending on their respective human, technical, financial, and organizational resources, many national societies take on additional humanitarian tasks within their home countries such as blood donation services or acting as civilian Emergency Medical Service (EMS) providers. The ICRC and the International Federation cooperate with the national societies in their international missions, especially with human, material, and financial resources and organizing on-site logistics.

Symbols of the Movement

Protection symbols vs. organizational emblems

The symbols described below have two different meanings. On one hand, the visual symbols of the Red Cross, the Red Crescent and the Red Lion with Sun serve as protection markings in armed conflicts, a denotation which is derived from and defined in the Geneva Conventions. This is called the protective use of the symbols. On the other hand, these symbols are used as distinctive logos by those organizations which are part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. This is the indicative use of the emblem. As a protection symbol, they are used in armed conflicts to mark persons and objects (buildings, vehicles, etc.) which are working in compliance with the rules of the Geneva Conventions. In this function, they can also be used by organizations and objects which are not part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, for example the medical services of the armed forces, civilian hospitals, and civil defense units. As protection symbols, these emblems should be used without any additional specification (textual or otherwise) and in a prominent manner which makes them as visible and observable as possible, for example by using large white flags bearing the symbol. When used as an organizational logo, these symbols only indicate that persons, vehicles, buildings, etc. which bear the symbols belong to a specific organization which is part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement (like the ICRC, the International Federation or the national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies). In this case, they should be used with an additional specification (for example "American Red Cross") and not be displayed as prominently as when used as protection symbols.

Symbols recognized by the Geneva Conventions

Red Cross

Emergency Medical Service The Red Cross on white background was the original protection symbol declared at the 1864 Geneva Convention. It is, in terms of its color, a reversal of the Swiss national flag, a meaning which was adopted to honor Swiss founder Henry Dunant and his home country. The ideas to introduce a uniform and neutral protection symbol as well as its specific design originally came from Dr. Louis Appia and General Henri Dufour, founding members of the International Committee. The Red Cross is defined as a protection symbol in Article 7 of the 1864 Geneva Convention, Chapter VII ("The distinctive emblem") and Article 38 of the 1949 Geneva Convention ("For the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armed Forces in the Field"). There is an unofficial agre

Emblem

Distinction: emblem and symbol

Other terminology

Emblems in history

See also

Image

Specialised meanings

See also

External links

Allegory

See also

External links

Further reading

Symbol

Nature of symbols

Use of symbols

Etymology

See also

External links

IDEA

Santiago de Compostela

The city

The etymology of the name Compostela

History of the shrine and the pilgrimage

The burial place of St. James

The establishment of the shrine

The pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela

Pre-Christian legends

The cathedral

See also

External links

Symbol

Nature of symbols

Use of symbols

Etymology

See also

External links

International Red Cross

History of the Movement

The International Committee of the Red Cross

Solferino, Henry Dunant and the foundation of the ICRC

The ICRC during World War One

The ICRC and World War Two

The ICRC after the Second World War

Presidents of the ICRC

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

History

Presidents of the Federation

Activities

Organization of the Movement

Activities and Organization of the ICRC

The mission of the ICRC and its responsibilities within the Movement

Legal status and organization

Funding and financial matters

Activities and organization of the Federation

The Mission of the Federation and its responsibilities within the Movement

Legal status and organization

Funding and financial matters

National societies within the Movement

Official Recognition of a national society

Activities of national societies on a national and international stage

Symbols of the Movement

Protection symbols vs. organizational emblems

Symbols recognized by the Geneva Conventions

Red Cross