Even in the remotest villages people instantly recognize the red cross on a white background as the Red Cross symbol. Or more precisely the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the most famous of all neutral and non-governmental organizations. Yet few know about Henry Dunant, its Swiss founder, a co-recipient in 1901 of the first Nobel Prize for Peace, and whose death in neglect and poverty was a national disgrace. VIVIAN HAKKAK reports on an exceptional and tragic life.

Born in 1828 in thensternly Calvinist Geneva, Jean Henry Dunant had a privileged yet disciplined childhood. A religious young man of high moral principles, he joined church and charitable groups including the League of Alms which strove to comfort the poor and sick. He was instrumental in helping the Young Men's Christian Association or YMCA become a worldwide movement, and he spent Sunday afternoons visiting the prison.

In 1849 he was apprenticed to a Geneva bank and four years later appointed General Manager of a subsidiary in Algeria. Seeing both business potential and an opportunity to spread the gospel, Dunant left the company and set up a farm and corn mill but soon encountered setbacks. Desperately needing a second water concession, in 1859 he approached Emperor Napoleon III of France directly. Little did Henry Dunant know this would dramatically change his life.

Dunant headed not for France but for Italy where French troops had joined the Italians in war against Austria. He found the Emperor on June 24, 1859, just in time to witness the horrors of the terrible Battle of Solferino, one of the bloodiest engagements of the 19th century. He described what he witnessed as " ... sheer butchery; a struggle between savage beasts, maddened with blood and fury... fighting to the last gasp."

Shaken by the violence and butchery, he cared for some 500 wounded soldiers housed in a church in the village of Castiglione. He dressed their wounds, fed them, gave them the little water available, and wrote last messages to their families. Helped by untrained local women he formed a group of volunteers to assist all soldiers without discrimination, impressing on them that they were all brothers - tutu fratelli.

Dunant forgot about business and instead of pleading for concessions, sought medical assistance. But thousands of soldiers died and Dunant began to despair, writing: "In the face of so great an emergency what could be done by a handful of enthusiasts all isolated and dispersed?" Shattered, he put down on paper what he had seen and felt, as well as his vision of universal tolerance. He knew too well that there would be more wars. His focus was to prevent a recurrence of the suffering.

In 1862 he published "A Memory of Solferino" which shook all of Europe and was acclaimed alike by monarchs, heads of state, the military and writers. Dunant posed two key questions: "Would it not be possible, in time of peace and quiet, to form relief societies for the purpose of having care given to the wounded in wartime by zealous, devoted and thoroughly qualified volunteers?", and, "On certain special occasions, as, for example, when princes of the military art belonging to different nationalities meet..., would it not be desirable that they should take advantage of this sort of congress to formulate some international principle, sanctioned by a Convention inviolate in character, which, once agreed upon and ratified, might constitute the basis for societies for the relief of the wounded...?"

DREAM BECOMES REALITY

Thus was born the idea of national societies and the notion of international humanitarian law, a dream which was to become reality. In 1863, Dunant laid down the foundations of a new organization together with four other respected Geneva citizens - Gustave Moynier, a lawyer and president of the Welfare Society of Geneva; Dr. Louis Appia and Dr. Theodore Maunoir, both surgeons; and national military leader General David Dufour.

Dunant traveled across Europe to draw people to his cause and invited experts to meet in Geneva. On Oct. 23, 1863, delegates representing 16 countries recommended the creation of national relief societies and asked governments to provide protection and support. A central proposal - "neutrality" - became the key to all Red Cross work. The conference asked that hospitals, medical staff, voluntary helpers and the wounded be given neutral status and identified by a distinctive sign. As Pierre Boissier stated in his book on Henry Dunant:

"The solution he proposed was of such elementary simplicity - the simplicity of genius that all were astonished that it had not been thought of earlier. All that was necessary was to agree on a single special emblem for all armies ...This sign was to render anyone bearing it immune from attack, to confer on him a new legal status which Dunant called `neutrality'."

On August 22, 1864, the "Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded in Armies in the Field" was signed. A milestone in history, it was ratified by almost all States in following years. The First Geneva Convention formalized the 1863 recommendations. A universal emblem guaranteeing protection and assistance was agreed - a red cross on a white background or the Swiss flag with colors reversed. The Convention was revised in 1906 and 1929, and expanded to form the four Geneva Conventions. Two additional Protocols were adopted in 1977. Dunant's vision resulted in Red Cross societies the world over with acceptance of the principle of neutrality.

But Dunant then was gradually pushed aside. In 1867, aged 39, personal disaster struck when his long-neglected business collapsed. He was humiliated by losing practically all he owned plus the esteem of suddenly cold-hearted friends and family. Feeling pressured to resign from the Red Cross Committee and leave Geneva, he lived in poverty for 20 years in several European cities, appearing publicly only occasionally to be honored for his part in founding the Red Cross.

Yet Dunant never abandoned fighting for causes in which he believed. In the year 1867 Empress Eugénie, Napoleon III's wife, asked him to have the Geneva Convention extended to naval warfare; he tried to set up an international library; he initiated a 1875 international congress in London to abolish slavery; and he formed: the "World Alliance for Order and Civilization" which could be considered the precursor to the United Nations.

DISGRACEFULLY FORGOTTEN

Prematurely aged, Henry Dunant returned in 1887 to Switzerland, finding refuge in the village of Heiden. Ill health then obliged him to move to the local hospital where he remained for the last 18 years of his life. Indeed, the man who had done more than any for the humanitarian treatment of soldiers and civilians in time of war might have died in total oblivion had he not been discovered in 1895 by a young journalist on a mountain expedition.

Georg Baumberger's article informed the world that Henry Dunant, the founder of the Red Cross, was still alive but living in misery. Messages of sympathy, acknowledgement of his great services to humanity and offers of assistance arrived from all over. The ultimate international acknowledgement came in 1901 when the Nobel Committee awarded Henry Dunant the first Nobel Peace Prize which he shared with Frederic Passy of France. The ICRC sent this message:

"There is no man who more deserves this honour, for it was you, forty years ago, who set on foot the international organization for the relief of the wounded on the battlefield. Without you, the Red Cross, the supreme humanitarian achievement of the nineteenth century, would probably never have been undertaken."

On October 30, 1910, at the age of 82, Henry Dunant died at Heiden. The International Committee of the Red Cross continued to develop and was active in all following wars. During the two World Wars its main concern was the plight of prisoners whom ICRC delegates tried to visit regularly. A central research agency was created at Geneva headquarters to forward millions of messages between prisoners and families. During World War II, protection and assistance was extended to civilians.

One of the world's largest humanitarian organizations, the ICRC reaches every corner of the globe. Over 700 people work at headquarters and some 11,000 in the field. There are over 130 National Societies, grouped in 1919 into a world federation, with some 250 million members. Members of the Committee - the supreme deliberative body - remain Swiss but ICRC staff, like those of National Societies, are multinational. Delegations in over 50 countries help victims of war and internal conflicts. Delegates visit prisoners, reunite families, care for the wounded, distribute relief supplies and promote humanitarian law. National Societies also work in peacetime, assisting the wounded, sick, disabled, young children and victims of natural disasters.

In recent years the ICRC has faced a new challenge which would have dismayed its founder - the rise in internal strife as compared to international wars and which can cause greater chaos and disregard for the laws of war. The Red Cross emblem is often ignored and ICRC field delegates lose their lives.

Henry Dunant was a visionary. He did not live to see it but most of his ideals became reality. His legacy is enormous. From one man's convictions arose a movement which changed the world.


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