From its foundation in 1863 to its role in shaping modern international humanitarian law (IHL), ICRC’s neutral, impartial, and independent humanitarian action has adapted to different conflicts and other situations of violence.
This research guide offers a quick overview of key moments in ICRC history, a gateway to explore the ICRC’s extensive Library and Archives and the wealth of materials available on the ICRC website. The source of the text below was originally published on icrc.org in 2010.
Battle of Solferino, June 1859. © ICRC
The Red Cross came into being at the initiative of a man named Henry Dunant, who helped wounded soldiers after the battle of Solferino in 1859 and then lobbied political leaders to take more action to protect war victims. His two main ideas were the drafting of a treaty that would introduce the obligation for armies to care for all wounded soldiers and the creation of National Societies that would help the military medical services.
Dunant put down his ideas in a campaigning book, A Memory of Solferino, published in 1862. The Public Welfare Committee in his hometown of Geneva took them up and formed a working group, which first met on 17 February 1863, date of creation of what would become the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The following October, an international conference was convened, to formalize the concept of National Societies.
The conference also agreed on a standard emblem to identify medical personnel on the battlefield: a red cross on a white background. The red crescent emblem was adopted by the Ottoman Empire in the 1870s.
In August 1864, delegates from a dozen countries adopted the first Geneva Convention, which put a legal framework around these decisions and made it compulsory for armies to care for all wounded soldiers, whatever side they were on.
These developments put the ICRC at the origin of both the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement – today grouping the ICRC, the National Societies (192 in 2025) and their International Federation – and of modern international humanitarian law: the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their three Additional Protocols of 1977 and 2005.
At the outset, the ICRC’s task was to encourage the creation of National Societies (the first was in the German state of Württemberg, in November 1863) and to act as a channel for communication between them. Its first field operation was in 1864, during the war between Germany and Denmark: delegates were sent to work on each side of the front line. This heralded the start of the ICRC’s operational role as a neutral intermediary between belligerents.
Dunant’s ideas found a positive response among leaders and benefactors, welfare groups and the public. In the following years, National Societies were established throughout Europe. The Geneva Convention was later adapted to include wounded, sick and shipwrecked in warfare at sea, and governments adopted other laws (such as the Hague Conventions) to protect war victims. At the same time, the ICRC expanded its own work, undertaking new activities such as visiting prisoners of war and transmitting lists of names, so that their families could be reassured.
By the end of the 19th century, Henry Dunant – whose vision had helped start the whole process – was living in obscurity in a Swiss mountain village; his business failures had forced him to withdraw from Geneva and from an active role in the Red Cross. But in 1901 he became the first recipient, along with the French pacifist Frédéric Passy, of the Nobel Peace Prize.
Dunant passed away in 1910. By then, the Red Cross and the Geneva Conventions had taken root in Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Africa. They were both to be severely tested during the First World War.
Geneva, Rath Museum. World War I. International Prisoners of War Agency’s staff. © ICRC
August 1914: As the world had just plunged into the chaos of war, the ICRC was about to face its first major challenge. This small institution would become a truly international organization, not only in terms of its size but also in its field of action. It had to adapt its procedures, already devised but never tested on such a large scale. Above all, it would be confronted by new humanitarian problems caused by a war without precedent.
Protected by the political neutrality of its host country, Switzerland, the ICRC began work following the first major clashes (the Battle of the Marne and the Battle of Tannenberg). In accordance with the mandate it received from the 4th International Conference of the Red Cross in 1887, its first step was to create an International Prisoners of War Agency, responsible for collecting information about prisoners of war and passing it on to their families. This facility was to expand in a spectacular fashion, reflecting the extent of military operations, and eventually involved around 1,200 people to deal with hundreds of thousands of requests.
In a move to help the prisoners further, the ICRC asked for and was granted permission to visit prisoner of war camps for the duration of the war. This also enabled the organization to conduct activities outside Europe for the first time. The ICRC’s neutrality, as well as the nationality of its delegates (all of whom were Swiss), were undoubtedly contributory factors in the success of its humanitarian initiative.
Look for a person detained during WWI
Improvising in Emergencies
In addition to prisoners of war, the First World War brought to the fore another category of people, civilians, who did not take part in hostilities but were nevertheless particularly affected by the consequences of military decisions, a situation that the ICRC could not ignore. Without any mandate, and for a category of people still largely unprotected by international humanitarian law, the ICRC can only improvise in an emergency. This laid the foundations for a policy of assisting civilians caught up in the violence of war, a policy that would develop over the years and become the cornerstone of the organization’s humanitarian activities.
The ICRC had concerns about the way in which war was being waged in other respects. The brutality of the conflict led belligerents to go back on their earlier commitments in humanitarian matters and to try out newly developed weapons. One of these, poison gas, in use from 1915, was one of the hazards the ICRC would take a stand against. The organization would similarly condemn the numerous violations of the Geneva Conventions committed intentionally by combatants.
Visits to Political Detainees
In contrast to previous conflicts, the sheer scale of the war meant that the post-war period presented as many humanitarian challenges as the years of violence themselves (repatriating prisoners of war, making the first visits to political detainees in Hungary in 1919, helping civilians cope with social disorganization and economic hardship). The ICRC was unable to ignore these needs, and its activities continued long after hostilities had ceased.
Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939. Valencia. ICRC delegation after aerial bombing. © ICRC
The violence of 1914-18 should have made this conflict the last. The public was horrified at the amount of blood that had been spilt and war now seemed to have no place. But events themselves would quickly quash this idealism. Far from disappearing, the violence of war would take an even more brutal turn with the arrival of the totalitarian ideologies of the 1920s and 1930s. The ICRC had to assert itself in an environment that was increasing unsympathetic towards humanitarian principles.
Despite the most optimistic predictions, the conclusion of the “war to end all wars” did not signify the end of the ICRC’s mission. As it turned out, the organization found itself involved in a range of new activities, which it either carried out alone or in cooperation with the young League of Red Cross Societies, founded in 1919.
In the political, social and economic turmoil that followed the war, the ICRC worked in central Europe, where food shortages and typhus were affecting an already weak population; in Russia, where it contributed to a huge international relief operation for famine victims; in the occupied Ruhr area; in Upper Silesia, where its services as a neutral intermediary were in demand; and in Greece and Turkey, where it helped people displaced by the conflict between the two countries.
The ICRC also continued to conduct activities on behalf of political detainees wherever its presence was accepted. Missions were undertaken in Montenegro, Ireland, Poland and Lithuania. After Adolf Hitler came to power, the organization also made two visits to the German concentration camps.
Across the World
At the same time as the number of people benefiting from its activities increased, the ICRC’s work began to diversify geographically. Japan’s colonial ambitions brought it to China in 1932, then again between 1937 and 1938. The organization started its first operations in South America during the bloody Chaco war between Bolivia and Paraguay. In addition, the ICRC sent two delegates to Ethiopia, which had been invaded by Mussolini’s troops. They watched helplessly as Italian planes dropped poison gas and bombed hospitals.
The experience in Ethiopia seemed to foreshadow the way in which the entire conflict of the Second World War would unfold, while some of the belligerents used the Spanish Civil War as a testing ground.
The Spread of Humanitarian Law
Of course, the ICRC had not been expecting this increase in belligerence and could do nothing to soften its impact on the victims. On its initiative, humanitarian law was extended in 1929 to prisoners of war, who were thereafter protected by an international convention in proper and due form. The organization also tried to secure similar protection for certain civilians, but to no avail. This legal vacuum would have terrible consequences during the Second World War.
The ICRC and the evacuation of children during the Spanish Civil War
Second World War, 1939-1945. Durban. Repatriation of Italian prisoners of war with mental health conditions. © ICRC
The invasion of Poland by German troops on 1 September 1939 is an indication of what is to come. Trench warfare is to be replaced by mechanized warfare, preceded by massive air raids that principally target the civilian population. Civilians would also be the main victims of brutal occupation policies, starting with those of the Third Reich and its allies, and later by the armies that succeeded them.
This World War presented the ICRC with a number of challenges. First, the organization had to carry out humanitarian work simultaneously on five continents, which demanded huge human and economic resources. More than fifty ICRC delegations were operational during the conflict.
The war also meant that the organization’s humanitarian work began to diversify. As well as carrying out its traditional activities for prisoners of war – such as visiting camps or setting up a central information agency on the prisoners (as in 1914-1918) – the ICRC also worked tirelessly to help civilians cope on a day-to-day basis with the disorganization resulting from the military situation. The ICRC thus launched major relief efforts to combat the famine in Greece and the food shortages on the Channel Islands.
While these relief operations were very successful, the same could not be said for some of the other missions that were part of the organisation’s actual mandate. Attempts to gain widespread access to prisoners of war were met with resistance, even categorical refusal from custodial States. The ICRC was therefore unable to help German or Soviet prisoners of war held by the other side, while in East Asia, its efforts to visit allied soldiers captured by the Japanese army were hampered by the Tokyo authorities’ lack of cooperation.
Powerless to Prevent Persecution
More obvious was the ICRC’s failure to assert its right of humanitarian action on behalf of civilians in the occupied areas or those deported to the concentration camps. Its failure as an institution to firmly oppose Nazi persecutions was only slightly mitigated by the individual actions of some of its delegates who helped those facing extermination. The ICRC’s inaction during the Holocaust remains synonymous with tragedy in the institution’s memory.
When the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed in August 1945, the Second World War came to an end and a new era in international relations began, dominated by the threat of nuclear war. The division of the world in two and the antagonism between the two blocs would influence the ICRC’s working methods in the decades to come.
The Nuremberg and Tokyo Trials
Search for individuals held during the Spanish Civil War or WWII
Korean War 1950-1953. Panmunjon. Armistice negotiations. ICRC delegates confer with Major-General and other representatives of the North Korean armed forces. © ICRC
At the end of the Second World War, the ICRC finds itself in an ambivalent position. Its humanitarian work during the conflict – in particular in aid of prisoners of war – has been widely commended and gained international recognition in the form of the Nobel Peace Prize. However, some countries, particularly in Eastern Europe, are criticizing the organization for not doing enough for the millions of Holocaust victims. Conversely, it was also criticized for dedicating too much time to helping civilians in the defeated countries after the war, particularly in Germany. These criticisms, combined with a very difficult financial situation, are challenges that the organization must meet if it is to ensure its continued existence.
In response to the gaps in humanitarian law, principally concerning civilian victims of armed violence, the ICRC embarked on a process of revising and expanding the Geneva Conventions, aiming to avoid a repeat of the horrors of the last war. Four essential texts were subsequently adopted by a Diplomatic Conference in August 1949, one of which explicitly states belligerents’ duties towards civilians.
With a view, as always, to increasing protection of the civilian population, the ICRC became involved at the start of the 1950s in a major debate on ways of prohibiting area bombing and weapons of mass destruction. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were still fresh in everyone’s minds and served as a backdrop to the discussions. Draft rules for the limitation of the dangers incurred by the civilian population in time of war were drawn up and submitted to the 19th International Conference of the Red Cross, but unfortunately without success.
New Conflicts and the Cold War
Operationally, in accordance with its mandate, the organization continued to offer its services to alleviate the suffering that had been caused by the world war (providing civilians with aid, repatriating prisoners of war, assisting refugees and the displaced) and also by new conflicts in the Middle East and in India, among others. However, the “outbreak” of the Cold War in 1947 placed the ICRC firmly on the international scene once more, giving it the opportunity to work as a neutral intermediary between East and West. The Greek Civil War, the Korean War, the Suez Crisis, the Hungarian Uprising, and the Cuban Missile Crisis are all examples of occasions on which the ICRC’s neutrality was as important as its impartiality.
Moreover, the ICRC found itself dealing with a new type of conflict, with its own characteristics and problems, as territories ruled by European States sought independence. These conflicts of national liberation, or “of decolonization”, affected all Western colonial powers, and would in fact continue beyond the period under consideration. The Dutch East Indies, French Indochina and Algeria, the British Empire in India and in Africa, and the Belgian Congo were the main stages for ICRC action. These conflicts of national liberation would have a profound impact on the organization’s modus operandi.
Lastly, the Biafran war would present the ICRC with new challenges that needed to be taken into account in the future: competition from other humanitarian organizations, and the increasing media coverage of war.
Arab-Israeli conflict. Sinai. 1973. Meeting of Egyptian and Israeli officers under the auspices of the ICRC. © ICRC
To meet new challenges and constantly growing needs, the ICRC became a “large” humanitarian organization with a permanent presence on every continent. It had to learn how to deal with serious security risks and the danger of humanitarian activities becoming increasingly politicized.
The 1970s
For the ICRC, the 1970s were marked by an increase in its staff (from around 340 in 1971 to nearly 850 in 1979), its resources and the geographical scope of its activities. The organization maintained a long-term presence on all five continents, and its work continued to keep pace with the pattern of decolonization wars, particularly those affecting Portuguese territories in Africa, or with conflicts arising from the indirect confrontation between the two power blocs (in Vietnam, for example).
Meanwhile, the ICRC also found itself working in the context of protracted regional conflicts (in Lebanon, Afghanistan, and Angola, for example), which influenced its perception of war and its long-term working methods. From the late 1960s, as military regimes came to power in different parts of the world, the ICRC expanded its work on behalf of political detainees.
Another major development during this period was the increase in the risks faced by ICRC delegates and members of other humanitarian organizations in the field. The growing number of those organizations – some of which took a partisan stance – as well as the increasingly sustained presence of the media at the heart of the conflicts led to new kinds of behaviour among belligerents, who did not hesitate at times to target humanitarian workers.
From the legal perspective, these were the years in which the international community adopted two Protocols additional to the Geneva Conventions (June 1977) to increase protection for the victims of international or non-international armed conflicts. These two documents are the direct outcome of the experience gained by the ICRC in the various colonial conflicts.
Iran-Iraq conflict. 1981. ICRC operation to repatriate 25 seriously wounded Iranian prisoners of war. © ICRC
The 1980s
The following decade saw a veritable proliferation of the ICRC’s activities, with the total number of staff rising from 1,580 to more than 5,200 by the end of that period. The number of ICRC delegations around the world doubled, reaching 50 by the early 1990s.
The ICRC had to deal with the consequences of every kind of armed violence: international wars (Iran/Iraq), internal conflicts (Mozambique, El Salvador, Chad, etc.), internal disturbances (Philippines, Nicaragua, South Africa, etc.), and decolonization conflicts (Timor Leste, Namibia). The question of providing assistance for refugees also arose, the problem being symbolized at the time primarily by the tragic cases of the Palestinians and the Vietnamese boat people. Meanwhile, the media intensified its coverage of war; at the same time – perhaps because of the media coverage – civil society was becoming more aware of worldwide disasters, whether man-made or natural.
Berbera, 1993. Dissemination course for Red Crescent and ICRC staff on international humanitarian law and the Red Cross principles. © ICRC
The 1990s
The fall of the Berlin Wall, the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War led to a large number of new internal conflicts, particularly in former Soviet territories (Tajikistan, the Caucasus, Moldova, etc.) but also in several African States (Somalia, Liberia, Sierra Leone) as well. As for Europe, after 45 years of peace, it was once again the scene of fighting (Balkans).
These wars, some of which looked rather like ethnic cleansing (Bosnia) if not outright genocide (Rwanda), involved an increasing number of actors as the fighting went on. The large number of weapons bearers made the work of the humanitarian organizations, and particularly of the ICRC, increasingly dangerous.
In parallel, the ICRC also had to deal with the outbreak of new international wars (such as the Gulf crisis) while continuing to deal with the aftermath of past fighting. Given the large number of conflict zones, the question of displaced persons or refugees began to take on gigantic proportions.
The instrumentalization of humanitarian action by politicians and/or the military in the 1990s became another major challenge for the ICRC. This blurring of roles confused warring parties and created new security problems.
With regard to legislation, the ICRC was involved in projects aimed at preventing the use of weapons that cause unnecessary suffering, particularly to civilians (e.g. blinding weapons, anti-personnel mines and clusters bombs).
Finally, the ICRC also found itself involved in post-conflict activities aimed at providing economic security or health care for people emerging from many years of war.
Nazran, 2002. ICRC distribution point. Distributing family food parcels. © ICRC
The 2000s
The terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 in the United States marked the start of a slide towards a new type of conflict that is said to be part of efforts to combat terrorism. That new war paradigm led to large-scale international operations against States that were said to shelter or support terrorist activities (Afghanistan, Iraq) and, more generally, to a hardening of attitudes in several countries in which violence was endemic (Algeria, Philippines, Yemen, Uzbekistan, etc.).
All that had implications for the ICRC, which found that governments were even questioning the legal principles underpinning its humanitarian mandate. Apart from extremely violent armed clashes in some places (Iraq), this questioning made its work on behalf of the victims even more difficult. Since the early 2000s the ICRC has paid special attention to a particular group of victims, women and girls, who are the primary targets of sexual violence during armed conflicts.
Another particular feature of the decade, vast international mobilization – also at the level of charitable activities – in response to major natural disasters (e.g. hurricane Katrina, tsunamis and earthquakes) or in connection with conflicts given extensive media coverage (Darfur) meant that the ICRC had to take up a new position on the humanitarian scene without ceasing to emphasize its difference from other organizations that are also working in the field of international aid.
Most references presented here are available for consultation at the ICRC Library and in its online catalogue. Archival sources from 1863 to 1975 can be consulted upon appointment at the institution’s headquarters in Geneva; see the service’s page for more information. For any question concerning the ICRC General Public Archives (their content, working procedures, the reading room, etc.), please write to publicarchives@icrc.org. Questions and suggestions on how to improve this page can be sent at library@icrc.org. To learn more, browse through library research guides here, including “History of the ICRC in 5 volumes”.
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