The Third Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 was adopted on 8 December 2005. The adoption of the red crystal as a recognized emblem brings a conclusion to decades of debates within the Movement on the plurality and universality of its emblems. While a working group was set up by the 1977 Council of Delegates, it was closed four years later without any major breakthrough. Almost a decade later, in 1992, ICRC president Cornelio Sommaruga published a text in the International Review of the Red Cross that marked the beginning of new discussions that would eventually lead to the Diplomatic Conference of 2005.

François Bugnion, historian and ICRC member since 2010 after nearly forty years working for the organization, looks back on the historical process that led to the adoption of the Third Protocol on the emblems.