Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- PART ONE Historical analysis
- PART TWO Policy analysis
- PART THREE Conclusion
- Annexe A The ICRC and the Red Cross movement
- Annexe B The ICRC and selected private relief agencies
- Annexe C The ICRC: one of the Big Four relief agencies
- Annexe D The ICRC and selected advocacy groups
- Annexe E The ICRC organizational chart
- Bibliography
- Index
Preface
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 July 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- PART ONE Historical analysis
- PART TWO Policy analysis
- PART THREE Conclusion
- Annexe A The ICRC and the Red Cross movement
- Annexe B The ICRC and selected private relief agencies
- Annexe C The ICRC: one of the Big Four relief agencies
- Annexe D The ICRC and selected advocacy groups
- Annexe E The ICRC organizational chart
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
In 1973 Pierre Boissier, an official of the ICRC and also at that time the Director of the now defunct Henry Dunant Institute, then supposedly the think tank of the Red Cross family, asked me to do some work for him as a research consultant. He was a wonderful and wise mentor, with a vast knowledge of humanitarian affairs. I later discovered that he had recommended me to others, and for certain positions, which shaped my professional life to a great extent. Among these positions was a stint as a consultant on humanitarian protection to Donald Tansley, head of the “Big Study” which led to the “Tansley Report” of 1975 on the reappraisal of the Red Cross Movement. On the basis of this foundation I was able to meet others and observe things which probably gave me a special niche for commenting on the ICRC as an informed outsider. I shall always be grateful for having encountered Pierre Boissier. It was a real tragedy that an accident cut short his life when he had so much to offer.
I am equally grateful to have worked for Don Tansley and to have experienced up close his caustic skepticism as he prepared to ruffle numerous Red Cross feathers. Being in Geneva more than twenty-five years after the publication of the Tansley Report, to which I made some contribution, I was amazed to see how much it had entered the history of the Red Cross Movement.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The HumanitariansThe International Committee of the Red Cross, pp. ix - xivPublisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2005