Dunant's pyramid: Thoughts on the “humanitarian space”

International Review of the Red Cross

Volumn 89, Issue 865, 2007, Pages 47-61

  Thürer, Daniel ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF ZURICH   (Switzerland)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84979789157     PISSN: 18163831     EISSN: 16075889     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S1816383107001038     Document Type: Article

References (67)

1. From an e-mail sent by Erin Schuler in Bosnia to her family in the United States concerning Serbian atrocities. Quoted in a melancholy book edited by Andrew Carroll containing much “hidden literature”: War Letters – Extraordinary Correspondence from American Wars, Rocket, New York, 2001, p. 470.
2. An African proverb, from Gerd de Ley, African Proverbs, Hippocrene Books, New York, 1999, p. 114.
3. Staff Sergeant Dan Welch, Tank Commander with the First Infantry Division, Seventh Corps, wrote on 8 March 1991 from the second Gulf War to his wife Marianne and son Chris: “I still think of the guy I shot the day before we attacked. If I hadn't done it, he could have been in an EPW camp right now, waiting to go home, just like me. He probably would have surrendered along with most of the others, just one day later.” Carroll, above note 1, p. 459.
4. There are various reasons for the technical nature and jargon of international humanitarian law: one is that specialists from the armed forces and national civil services had a major influence on the drafting process at the diplomatic conferences where the instruments of international humanitarian law were created; above all it is of importance for their implementation on the ground that the individual rules be clear and unambiguous. Nevertheless, one might sometimes wish for more accessible, more memorable language. The French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789) and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) both speak of “brotherhood”, and the helpers at Solferino exclaimed “Siamo tutti fratelli” (we are all brothers). The instruments of international humanitarian law bear little trace of such rhetoric.
5. Ernst Cassirer defined man as an “animal symbolicum” rather than an “animal rationale”. See Ernst Cassirer, Essai sur l'homme, Les Editions de Minuit, Paris, 1975, pp. 44 ff.
6. Cited in Jeremy Rayner, “Organic and Mechanical Metaphors in Late Eighteenth-Century American Political Thought”, Harvard Law Review, Vol. 110, 1997, pp. 1832 ff.
7. Christophe Bouriau, Qu'est-ce que l'imagination?, Vrin, Paris, 2003, p. 44.
8. It may appear somewhat anachronistic to recount the story – or legend – of Dunant in our age of complex, technological, electronic warfare. I shall do so nonetheless, both because at the time the initiator of the Red Cross embodied a new and basic idea and because I feel that he continues to serve as an ethical example – or perhaps even a template – imbued with contemporary relevance and the power to inspire. I feel strengthened in taking such an “un-modern” approach by the fears that Umberto Eco expresses on the “end of ethics”: “Ethics”, Eco reminds us with an eye to the future, “requires a model for living that is both hard to follow and demands a degree of effort. The media, however, will increasingly promote as models for living such people as possess very few heroic virtues yet have become an example for all because of their continuous exposure on television, in the press or on the Internet. Not so much St Catherine or Florence Nightingale as Princess Diana or Monika Lewinsky.” Umberto Eco, Schüsse mit Empfangsbestätigung – Neue Streichholzbriefe, Mūnchen/Wien, 2006, s. 7 (ICRC translation).
9. One characteristic of path-dependent development is that structures that arose through a particular historical situation tend to reproduce themselves. Changes are possible, but only as variations of a path with particular characteristics, a path that of itself is irreversible. See for instance the work by Nobel prize-winner Douglas C. North, Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1991.
10. Henry Dunant, A Memory of Solferino, ICRC, Geneva, 1986 (original, French edition 1862).
11. A Memory of Solferino, p. 16.
12. A Memory of Solferino, p. 34.
13. A Memory of Solferino, p. 19.
14. A Memory of Solferino, pp. 41, 61.
15. A Memory of Solferino, p. 62.
16. A Memory of Solferino, p. 66.
17. A Memory of Solferino, pp. 52, 53 (ICRC translation).
18. A Memory of Solferino, p. 126.
19. See Michael Ignatieff, Die Ehre des Kriegers-I, in Hans Magnus Enzensberger (ed.), Krieger ohne Waffen, Das Internationale Komitee vom Roten Kreuz, Frankfurt am Main, 2001, p. 18: “The natural law on which the Geneva Convention was based attempted, for the first time in history, to promulgate rules that applied to all people, Christians and heathens, believers and non-believers, nationals and foreigners” Eichborn (ICRC translation).
20. I realize that in a period of resurgent religious fundamentalism the use of a Christian parable to present a universal, worldwide humanitarian endeavour may be controversial. I do so because this parable embodies an archetype of thought and action that recurs in various civilizations, albeit expressed in other terms and through other figures. On compassion in Buddhism, for instance, see Hans Küng, Projekt Weltethos, 4th edn, Piper, Munich, 1998, pp. 118 ff., 124
21. Wozu Weltethos? Religion und Ethik in Zeiten der Globalisierung, Herder Freiburg im Breisgau, 2002, pp. 118 ff., 124.
22. Max Huber, Vermischte Schriften, Vol. II, Glaube und Kirche, Zurich, 1948, pp. 293 ff.
23. Vermischte Schriften, p. 309.
24. Vermischte Schriften, p. 310.
25. Marcel Junod, Le Troisième Combattant – De l'ypérite en Abyssinie à la bombe atomique d'Hiroshima, Payot, Geneva, 1989, p. 8.
26. Jakob Kellenberger, president of the ICRC, still recommends this famous book to every delegate, in Erica Deuber Ziegler (ed.), Soixante ans après Le Désastre de Hiroshima de Marcel Junod, Labor et Fides, Geneva, 2005, p. 11.
27. For further, impressive testimony to the work of the Red Cross see Stefan Zweig, “Das Herz Europas – Ein Besuch im Genfer Roten Kreuz”, in his Die schlaflose Welt – Essays 1909–1941, 4th edn, Fischer, Frankfurt am Main, 2003, pp. 74 ff.
28. Enzensberger, above note 20; Michael Ignatieff, The Warrior's Honor, Metropolitan Books, New York, 1997.
29. Junod, above note 25, pp. 152 ff.
30. The Warrior's Honor, pp. 182 ff.
31. The Warrior's Honor, p. 14.
32. See Theodor Meron, “The Humanization of Humanitarian Law”, American Journal of International Law, 2000, vol. 94, pp. 239 ff.
33. Corfu Channel Case (UK v. Albania), Merits, 1949 ICJ Rep. 4, 22.
34. Military and Paramilitary Activities in and against Nicaragua (Nicaragua v. United States), Merits, 1986 ICJ Rep. 14, 113–14.
35. Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons, Advisory Opinion, 1996 ICJ Rep., para. 86.
36. Theodor Meron, “The Martens Clause, Principles of Humanity, and Dictates of Public Conscience”, American Journal of International Law, 2000, vol. 94, pp. 78 ff.
37. Judge Shahabadden, above note 32, Dissenting Opinion, para. 86.
38. Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Advisory Opinion, 2004 ICJ Rep. (9 July), paras. 89 ff.
39. See Johanna Grombach Wagner, “An IHL/ICRC perspective on “humanitarian space””, available at http://www.odihpn.org.report, asp?ID=2765
40. Béatrice Mégevand Roggo, “After the Kosovo Conflict, a genuine humanitarian space”, International Review of the Red Cross, No. 837, January–March 2000, pp. 31 ff.
41. Rony Brauman, Humanitaire – le dilemme, Les Editions Textuel, Paris, 1996, p. 43.
42. See also Joelle Tanguy and Fiona Terry, “On humanitarian Responsibility”, available at http://www.cceia.org.
43. UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Glossary of Humanitarian Terms, available at http://ochaonline.un.org/GetBin.asp?DocID=1328.
44. Rupert Emerson described the circle, which recurs time and again throughout the natural world, as the “principal figure without end; it is the highest emblem in the community of the world” in Essays, Zurich, 1983, p. 233 (ICRC translation). Here we have chosen a figure consisting of straight lines and points.
45. Marion Harroff-Tavel, “Neutrality and impartiality – the importance of these principles for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and the difficulties involved in applying them”, International Review of the Red Cross, No. 273, November–December 1989, pp. 536 ff.
46. Frits Kalshoven, “Impartiality and neutrality in humanitarian law and practice”, International Review of the Red Cross, pp. 516 ff.
47. François Bugnion, The International Committee of the Red Cross and the Protection of War Victims, Macmillan, Geneva, 2003, p. 373: “take away the principle of humanity, and the Red Cross loses its raison d'être; take away the other principles, and its work is paralysed”.
48. See Mégevand Roggo, above note 36, pp. 837 ff.
49. The preamble to the Statutes, as adopted in October 1986 at the 25th International Conference of the Red Cross in Geneva, lists seven fundamental principles for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement: humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity and universality. For our purposes it is the first three that are of particular importance. See Jean Pictet, The Fundamental Principles of the Red Cross – Commentary, Henry Dunant Institute, Geneva, 1979
50. Harroff-Tavel, above note 40, pp. 536 ff.
51. Above note 31. See also Kalshoven, above note 40, pp. 541 ff.
52. Jean Pictet, The Fundamental Principles of the Red Cross and Peace, Henry Dunant Institute, Geneva, 1984, p. 7
53. Jean Pictet, “The Fundamental Principles of the Red Cross: Commentary”, available at http:// www.icrc.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/htmlall/5mje9n?opendocument.
54. See also Jean-Luc Blondel, “The meaning of the word “humanitarian” in relation to the Fundamental Principles of the Red Cross and Red Crescent”, International Review of the Red Cross, No. 273, November–December 1989, pp. 507 ff.
55. Prosecutor v. Furundzija, No. IT-95–17/1-T, Judgement, Para. 185 (Dec. 10, 1998)’, in International Legal Materials, 1999, pp. 317 ff.
56. Cornelio Sommaruga, in Massimo Lorenzi, Entretiens avec Cornelio Sommaruga, Président du Comité international de la Croix-Rouge, Favre, Lausanne, 1998, p. 19.
57. Pictet, above note 46, p. 9.
58. See Entretiens avec Cornelio Sommaruga, Président du Comité international de la Croix-Rouge, pp. 14 ff.
59. See Harroff-Tavel, above note 40, pp. 542 ff.
60. Marion Harroff-Tavel, “La diplomatie humanitaire et le Comité international de la Croix-Rouge”, Relations internationales, 2005, vol. 121, pp. 73 ff.
61. Protocol I of 1977 to the Geneva Conventions of 1949, Article 70.
62. One fundamental challenge to these principles is the doctrine of a “just war”, put forward since the Crusades and continuing right through to the jihad. It is this doctrine that is used to justify such attacks as those in Baghdad on the UN offices in August 2003 and the ICRC delegation in October of the same year. Regarding the current context, see Toni Pfanner, “Asymmetrical warfare from the perspective of humanitarian law and humanitarian action”, International Review of the Red Cross, No. 857, January–February 2005, pp. 149 ff.
63. See for instance the European Court of Human Rights.
64. See Luzius Wildhaber, “Gerichte und Richter im europäischen Verfassungsraum”, Zeitschrift für Schweizerisches Recht, 2006/I, pp. 93 ff.
65. Not for nothing do we speak of the Red Cross Movement.
66. See Judith Gardam, Necessity, Proportionality and the Use of Force by States, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2004.
67. See Michael Bothe, “Humanitäres Völkerrecht als Schutz der Menschenrechte: Auf der Suche nach Synergien und Schutzlücken”, in Pierre-Marie Dupuy, Bardo Fassbender, Malcolm N. Shaw and Karl-Peter Sommermann (eds.), Festschrift für Christian Tomuschat, Engel, Kehl/Strasbourg/Arlington, 2006, pp. 28 ff.