Red Cross, Red Crescent Magazine. No. 3, 2011

8/3/2019 Red Cross, Red Crescent Magazine. No. 3, 2011

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Red Cross Red CrescentI S S U E 3 . 2 0 1 1 r e d c r o s s . i n t

T H E M A G A Z I N E O F T H E I N T E R N A T I O N A L

R E D C R O S S A N D R E D C R E S C E N T M O V E M E N T

The power of

humanitariandiplomacy

Food security and the Horn o AricaThe catastrophic convergence o climate and confict

Voices o the Arab SpringCould this be the dawn o a Red Crescent spring?

Banning the bombIs the time right to end the era o nuclear weapons?


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The International Red Cross and

Red Crescent Movementis made up of theInternational Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the

International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent

Societies (IFRC) and the National Societies.

The International Committee o the Red

Cross is an impartial, neutral and independent

organization whose exclusively humanitarian

mission is to protect the lives and dignity o

victims o armed confict and other situations oviolence and to provide them with assistance.

The ICRC also endeavours to prevent suering by

promoting and strengthening humanitarian law

and universal humanitarian principles. Established

in 1863, the ICRC is at the origin o the Geneva

Conventions and the International Red Cross and

Red Crescent Movement. It directs and coordinates

the international activities conducted by the

Movement in armed conficts and other situations

o violence.

The International Federation o Red Cross

and Red Crescent Societies works on the basis

o the Fundamental Principles o the International

Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement to inspire,

acilitate and promote all humanitarian activitiescarried out by its member National Societies to

improve the situation o the most vulnerable

people. Founded in 1919, the IFRC directs and

coordinates international assistance o the

Movement to victims o natural and technological

disasters, to reugees and in health emergencies.

It acts as the o cial representative o its member

societies in the international eld. It promotes

cooperation between National Societies and

works to strengthen their capacity to carry out

eective disaster preparedness, health and social

programmes.

The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement

is guided by seven Fundamental Principles:

humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity and universality.

All Red Cross and Red Crescent activities have one central purpose:

to help without discrimination those who sufer and thus contribute to peace in the world.

International Federation of

Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

embody the work and principles o the

International Red Cross and Red Crescent

Movement in more than 186 countries. National

Societies act as auxiliaries to the public authoritieso their own countries in the humanitarian eld

and provide a range o services including disaster

relie, health and social programmes. During

wartime, National Societies assist the aected

civilian population and support the army medical

services where appropriate.


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THE IMPLEMENTATION OF interna-tional humanitarian law (IHL) hasendured mixed ortunes over thelast two decades.

The creation o international institutions

to enorce the concept o personal crimi-

nal responsibility or war crimes rom

the ad-hoc tribunals or Rwanda and the

ormer Yugoslavia, to the special court or

Sierra Leone and the International Criminal

Court (ICC) raised expectations in the

late 1990s about a new era in the imple-

mentation o the laws o war.

The optimism aded somewhat with the in-

ternational response to the terrorist attacks

o 11 September 2001. The subsequent re-pudiation o undamental norms, such as

the absolute prohibition o torture, were

certainly a setback in the implementation

o IHL, as was the whole questioning o

long-held tenets o the rules o war, such

as the distinction between civilians and

combatants, and the requirement o pro-

portionality in military response.

In the context o the fght against terrorism

and asymmetric warare, some argued, the

traditional laws o war, initially intended to

address conicts between states, looked

outdated. One o the most blatant ex-

amples over the past decade came in the

fnal months o the civil war in Sri Lanka in

2009, when government eorts to eradi-

cate once and or all the Tamil Tiger rebels

led the army to indiscriminate shelling on

a scale that killed tens o thousands o ci-

vilians.

Yet the past decade has not simply beenone o setbacks. Somewhat paradoxi-

cally, the outing o the law has made us

more conscious o it. There is an increased

Guest editorial

I S S U E 3 . 2 0 1 1 | R E D C R O S S R E D C R E S C E N T | 1

How to ensure respect or

the rules o war?

awareness o IHL and its requirements both

in military circles and among political lead-

ers, as well as the general public. In some

theatres, there have been increased eorts

at compliance.

The way orward must build on these

achievements by encouraging the rebuild-

ing o a consensus on the norms. Consensusincreases voluntary compliance, which

is much more e cient than coercion as a

method o implementation. The ICRC has

the leading role to play in the preservation

o the integrity o the norms o humanitari-

anism but also in their modernization. Civil

society actors and academics are increas-

ingly engaged in the debates.

Eorts should be ocused on increasing

the eectiveness o mechanisms o en-

orcement. This should include a renewed

momentum or making the International

Criminal Court a truly universal body. The

ICCs eectiveness stems rom its legiti-

macy, but this is di cult to achieve in an

environment o perceived politicization

and double standards.

There have also been sensible calls or

a universal monitoring body. The idea,

expressed by US author and associate

proessor o political science Charlie Car-

penter and others, would be to establish

an institution that does or IHL what the

International Atomic Energy Agency

does or non-prolieration and the World

Health Organization does or medicalstandards by providing an independent

authority to investigate claims o viola-

tions o IHL on the ground. This could

serve to concentrate and proessionalize

the act-fnding and inquiry initiatives that

have prolierated in recent years, at times

with insu cient impact.

The ultimate objective must be, o course,

the prevention o armed conict. Political

engagement, humanitarian presence and

human rights protection all play a part in re-

ducing the deadly consequences o warare.

But as long as war continues to be waged,

the implementation o rules o universal ap-

plication on the conduct o combat remains

a signifcant and essential challenge.

By Louise Arbour

Louise Arbour is the ormer United Nations High

Commissioner or Human Rights, a ormer Justice

o the Canadian Supreme Court and a ormer chie

prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunals,or both the ormer Yugoslavia and Rwanda. She now

serves as president o the International Crisis Group,

www.crisisgroup.org

Paradoxically, the fouting o

international humanitarian

law in the last decade has

made many more conscious

o its importance.

Your turnI you would like to submit an opinion article or

consideration, please contact the magazine at [email protected]. All views expressed in guest editorials are

those o the author and not necessarily those o the

Red Cross Red Crescent Movement or this magazine.

Photo:

Jea

n-M

arc

Ferre

/Un

ite

dNations


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New National Societyin South SudanWith South Sudan gaining its

independence at the beginning

o July, the southern part o the

Sudanese Red Crescent separatedto orm a new National Society, the

South Sudan Red Cross.

Just as the new country

aces many challenges to its

development, with limited

inrastructure or health services,

the new National Society also needs

to establish itsel.

Many o the volunteers who

have already signed up joined in

the National Society s frst o cial

act frst-aid assistance during

the independence celebrations.

With sweltering temperatures, the

volunteers attended to hundreds

o people who ainted due to

sunstroke or dehydration.

Were looking orward to

becoming a really well-unctioning

National Society, says volunteer

Latio Kudus Clement, who served

as branch manager or the

Sudanese Red Crescent in Juba,

South Sudans largest city and the

headquarters or the new National

Society. At the moment, we lack

people and expertise. But it willcome.

1.5 million afected byBangladesh oodsBangladesh was battered by

storms and oods in August and

September, with approximately

1.5 million people aected.Families and individuals have had

their homes devastated, orcing

them to seek out alternative,

ad-hoc accommodation. What

are we to do? asks Tuhin, a local

schoolteacher. Every single house

was ooded. There are hundreds

o us orced to the edge o the

roadside. We need help!

More than 1,100 homes in these

villages were either destroyed or

heavily damaged and, with so much

stagnant water, the risk o disease

is high. At an evacuation centre in

the village o Shener Ghati, a man

named Fazular tells a amiliar story:

I came here 20 days ago with my

wie and three children, he says.

My home was totally destroyed. All

is gone, all is gone.

The Bangladesh Red Crescent

Society, with support rom an IFRC

appeal and emergency unds, has

provided a wide range o assistance,

rom medical care to ood, water,

cash grants and provisional shelter.

Volunteer gives lie tosave othersBy the dim light o his torch, 32-year-

old Han Sun Il could just see the

two children hanging out o the

window. The children were crying

and desperately shouting or help as

ood waters rose around their home

during oods that ravaged the area

in late July.

Seeing that the house could be

washed away at any moment, the

volunteer or the Red Cross Societyo the Democratic Peoples Republic

o Korea jumped into the swirling

water to rescue the children.

Ater managing to get the 3-year-

old girl rom the hal-destroyed house

one o many that succumbed to

oods in South Hwanghae province

this summer he returned to etch

the 11-year-old boy.

But the water was running deeper

and aster. Stumbling, alling and

being carried away by the churning

stream, he reached the house across

the stormy water. On the way back,

the water rose almost to his chestand he struggled or another 30

minutes to get to shore.

Ater pushing the boy to land,

the exhausted volunteer was swept

away. I dont eel as though Han

has departed rom us. He will be

orever in the heart o my amily

and neighbours, said Ji Yon Ok,

the childrens mother. From now

on, his daughter is my daughter. My

husband and I will become Red Cross

volunteers to help other people.

Movement deploreskilling o Syrian RedCrescent rst-aider

The Red Cross Red Crescent

Movement called or greater

protection o health care workers

ater it learned o the death o Hakam

Sibai, who was killed when the Red

Crescent ambulance he was riding in

was struck by 31 bullets in the city o

Homs on 7 September.

The incident took place while

Sibai and two other Red Crescent

volunteers were on duty taking an

injured person to hospital. The two

other Syrian Red Crescent volunteers

were badly wounded in the incident.

Volunteers and sta o the Syrian Arab

Red Crescent have been providing

critical humanitarian assistance in

recent months, including in the

remotest areas o Syria.

The ICRC and IFRC join together

in calling all those involved in

the violence to strictly respect

and acilitate the work o the Red

Crescent sta and volunteers at all

times in order to enable them to

carry out their urgent humanitarianmission in an impartial manner,

according to a joint statement.

Norwegian Red Crossmobilized ater deadlyshootingsIn the wake o mass shootings on the

island o Utya, in Norway, volunteers

rom the Norwegian Red Cross helped

search-and-rescue operations and

supported relatives o those aected

and young people across the country.

The youths and their relatives, riendsand everyone around them have

been through an experience in the

last ew days that is impossible or

the rest o us to comprehend, said

Sven Mollekleiv, president o the

Norwegian Red Cross.

In brief...

2 | R E D C R O S S R E D C R E S C E N T | I S S U E 3 . 2 0 1 1

Quotes o noteOur new Red Cross is born to

shine in the heart o Arica,

lets work or humanity.Excerpt rom the new anthem o the

South Sudan Red Cross, sung during

independence celebrations to mark the

birth o the Republic o South Sudan.

Women in Pakistans southern Sindh province inspect their cotton crops ater the region was hit hard by

monsoon rains that started in August, aecting more than 5.3 million people. The Pakistan Red Crescent

Society, the IFRC and other Movement actors responded by providing ood, shelter, sanitation and

medical assistance. Photo: Olivier Matthys/ IFRC/PRCS

4: Number o Libyan Red Crescent

volunteers killed in the last six months

30: Percentage o population

malnourished in drought aected

areas in the Horn o Arica

35: Epidemics o cholera, polio,

meningitis, yellow ever and other

communicable diseases responded

to by Red Cross Red Crescent

National Societies in 2010*

50,000: People on Colombias

registry o missing persons**

281,453: People living with HIV and

orphans who received psychosocial

support by Red Cross Red Crescent

National Societies during 2010*

440,000: Approximate population

o Kenyas Dadaab reugee camp near

the Somali border

Humanitarian index

Photo:

Conor

Ash

leigh/IFRC

Sources: *IFRC/Health in numbers **ICRC


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26. Care along the Caguan

24. Voices o the Arab Spring


ContentsISSUE 3 . 2011 .redcross.int

Articles, letters to the editors and other correspondence

should be addressed to:

Red Cross Red CrescentP.O. Box 372, CH-1211 Geneva 19, Switzerland

E-mail: [email protected] ISSN No. 1019-9349

Editor

Malcolm Lucard

Product ion O cer

Paul Lemerise

Design

Baseline Arts Ltd, Oxord, UK

Layout

New Internationalist, Oxord, UK

Printed

on chlorine-ree paper by Swissprinters Lausanne SA, Switzerland

Editorial boardICRC IFRC

Yasmine Praz Dessimoz Alison Freebairn

Dorothea Krimitas Pierre Kremer

Florian Westphal Jason Smith

We grateully acknowledge the assistance oresearchers and

support sta o the ICRC, the IFRC and National Societies.

The magazine is published three times a year in Arabic, Chinese,

English, French, Russian and Spanish and is available in 187

countries, with a circulation omore than 80,000.

The opinions expressed are those o the authors and not necessarily

o the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.

Unsolicited articles are welcomed, but cannot be returned.

Red Cross Red Crescentreserves the right to edit all articles. Articles

and photos not covered by copyright may be reprinted without prior

permission. Please credit Red Cross Red Crescent.

The maps in this publication are or inormation purposes only and

have no political signicance.

On the cover: Humanitarianism has always had two sides:

direct assistance to those in need and advocacy or humanitarian

principles. Photo credit: Jakob Dall/Danish Red Cross; Mike Segar/

Reuters, courtesy www.alertnet.org; MM Studios/Ian Nixon

Cover story 4Speaking up or humanityEver since Henry Dunant wrote Memories o

Solerino, humanitarian action has had tworonts: direct relie and diplomatic action. As the

Movement meets with governments during the 31st

International Conerence in Geneva in November,

humanitarian diplomacy takes on international

humanitarian law, health care, nuclear weapons,

disaster law, support o r National Societies,

protection o volunteers and more. In the ield,

humanitarian diplomacymeans speaking up or

the vulnerable in the halls o power. Our coverage

begins in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with a story about

Movement diplomacy at the Arican Union.

The art o persuasion 8The dynamic team at the Australian Red Cross engages

government, donors and the public in vital social

issues without getting caught up in politics o the day.

Focus 12Desperate hungerThe tragic confuence o confict and prolonged drought

hasmade the ood insecurity crisis in the Horn o Arica

one o the Movements most di cult humanitarian

and diplomatic challenges: how to providemillions o

people with live-saving aid while advocating or long-

term, locally based ood solutions?

Weapons 16Banning the bombThe nuclear brinksmanship o the Cold Warmay be over,

but worries over prolieration o nuclearweapons are

creating a new opportunity or diplomacy towards their

prohibition and eventual elimination. The Movement is

playing a central role in the debate.

4. Speaking up or humanity

12. Desperate hunger

16. Banning the bomb

Disaster preparedness 22Unnatural disastersOil spills, radiation leaks, chemical res these

are just a ew o the man-made emergencies thatNational Societies sometimes conront. In the wake

o the Fukushima nuclear emergency, Red Cross Red

Crescentmagazine asked IFRC President Tadateru

Kono what the Movement should do to better

prepare or technological disasters.

Humanitarian values 24Voices o the Arab SpringAs political turmoil and confict continue to reshape

societies throughout North Arica and the Middle

East, Red Crescent National Societies have also had to

redene themselves as governments ell and National

Societies were pushed to the limits o their capacity.

First in a series.

Health care in danger 26Care along the CaguanIn remote areas o Colombia, ICRC teams travel by

boat on the Caguan River to deliver health care to

vulnerable communities in areas plagued by armed

violence. Some people in these isolated river towns

say they eel as i they have no right to get sick.

National Society development 28

Bridging the digital divideWhen it comes to digital technology among National

Societies, there is a big gap between the haves and

the have-nots. Nonetheless, some National Societies

are doing a lot with a little, while the IFRC hopes to

bridge the divide. A story in a chart.

Resources 29


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AS UNREST BOILED OVER into all-out civil warin Libya this past spring, the ICRC quickly de-ployed medical teams and sent other reliesupplies to areas in the eastern part o the country

where it could gain access.

Side by side with local medics and Libyan Red

Crescent volunteers in Benghazi hospitals, ICRC sur-gical teams put on their light-blue scrubs and white

surgical masks and got to work: perorming triage,

removing shrapnel and treating the injuries o peo-

ple wounded in the fghting.

At the same time, another lesser-known humani-

tarian response had also shited into high gear.

Roughly 3,700 kilometres (2,300 miles) to the south-

east, at the headquarters o the Arican Union (AU) in

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, a team o ICRC delegates had

been working on a dierent ront, having urgent dis-

cussions with all parties to the conict to obtain sae

access to areas still unreached by outside medical or

other humanitarian assistance.

At stake were the lives o thousands o people

caught inside the escalating conict, but with lim-

ited access to doctors, medical care or other help.

Vincent Ochilet, the deputy head o ICRC delega-

tion to the Arican Union, recalls patiently waiting

outside a meeting in March held between the AU

and representatives o the Gaddaf administration.We just waited around all day in the AU corridors to

talk with one o Gaddafs representatives in order to

Speaking upfor humanityA voice or vulnerable people in the halls opower, Movement diplomacy ranges romrapid response during emergencies to support

or long-term solutions and humanitarianvalues. Movement eforts at the Arican Unionofer a case in point.

K As ghting erupted in Libya,

the ICRC talked with all parties

to gain access to areas o confict

and ensure that health-care

workers were protected. Here, an

ambulance passes rebel ghters in

Ajdabiyah, Libya, April 2011.Photo: REUTERS/Esam al-Fetori, courtesy

www.alertnet.org


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make sure that the ICRC extends its activities to the

areas controlled by Gaddafs troops, he says.

This was just one o many diplomatic eorts

launched by ICRC internationally to gain greater ac-

cess to the conict zone and to ensure protection or

health-care and other aid workers. At the AU, the ICRCs

status as permanent observer aords unique access to

decision-makers during emergencies.

That doesnt mean its easy even to get an audi-

ence or that you always get the results you hope

or. You have to be patient doing humanitarian di-

plomacy, says Ochilet.

Humanitarian diplomacy in action This is one example o humanitarian diplomacy in

action during a rapidly evolving emergency. Simi-

lar strenuous eorts have been made this year by

Movement diplomats at the AU and else-where as political unrest swept through

much o North Arica and the

When you see

anyone coming with

proo the impact

is dierent and

more useul.

Jean Ping, chairman o the

Arican Union Commission

The term humanitariandiplomacy has only

recently entered the lexicon

o international relie

organizations. But the idea is

ar rom new. One could say it

began as soon as Henry Dunant returned rom Solerino, Italy

in 1859, when the horriying atermath o war inspired what is

now the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement.

Armed with what was in a sense the Movements rst

advocacy report his bookMemories of Solferino Dunant

tirelessly lobbied riends, kings, generals, prime ministers and

ellow businessmen to help him develop the ramework or a

volunteer movement and a system o codes to protect civilians

and the wounded during battle.

Since its inception, the Red Cross Red Crescent has been

engaged in humanitarian diplomacy, notes Stephen Omollo,

IFRCs lead humanitarian diplomat in Arica. It is basically

persuading key decision-makers to act at all times to alleviate

human suering.

Today, 152 years ater Solerino, the issues we conront are

more complex, the methods o persuasion more diverse and

the messages we bring are based on a body o humanitarian

law o which Dunant could only dream. Still, the undamentalmessage is the same protect the vulnerable, care or those

in need, respect the rules o war.

ICRC humanitarian diplomacy is about raising awareness

about the plight o the victims o armed conficts and the

necessity o all parties taking part in hostilities to respect

international humanitarian law, says Vincent Ochilet, deputy

head o ICRCs delegation to the Arican Union, based in Addis

Ababa, Ethiopia.

This year, humanitarian diplomacy takes on particular

urgency as the Movement holds its 2011 statutory meetings:

the Council o Delegates, the IFRCs General Assembly and,

nally, the 31st International Conerence, the supreme

deliberative body or the Movement and a key chance to

consult with state signatories to the Geneva Conventions.

At the top o the agenda: strengthening international

humanitarian law, improving international disaster response

law, protection o health workers during confict, equal access

to health services, supporting local humanitarian action and

promotion o non-violence, among other key issues.

Faced with myriad new challenges, rom climate change

to new weapons technology or the rise o non-state armed

groups, the Movement will need to bring all its diplomatic

skills to bear as it seeks to address these issues and keep theundamental humanitarian values pioneered by Dunant

and his ollowers alive in the 21st century.

LProtection or displaced people is

a priority or the ICRC Arican Union

delegation in Addis Ababa. Here,

women displaced by ghting and

amine in southern Somalia rush

into a government eeding centre.Photo: REUTERS/Stuart Price, courtesy

www.alertnet.org

The two sideso humanitarianaction


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Middle East, as violence in Cte dIvoire led to mas-

sive displacement o people into Liberia, and as the

ongoing Horn o Arica crisis descended into a re-

gional, complex emergency.

In all cases, Movement actors have to work on two

ronts: publicly and privately advocating or a robust

response to urgent needs, while at the same time,

promoting long-term solutions as well as adherenceto international humanitarian law (IHL) and regional

agreements that protect the displaced.

Fortunately, a more solid legal oundation or the

protection o displaced people throughout Arica

is emerging. In 2009, the AU (with ICRC assistance)

adopted the Kampala Convention, the frst-ever in-

ternational treaty or the protection and assistance

o internally displaced persons (IDPs) across an en-

tire continent.

Otherwise known as The AU Convention on the Pro-

tection and Assistance o Internally Displaced People,

the treaty contains important provisions or respect o

IHL that bind both state and non-state actors.

The ICRCs Addis delegation has been involved in

the drating process on IHL-related matters rom the

outset. But the work is ar rom over. The challenge

now is to assist the AU in promoting and, ultimately,

implementing the convention. At the levels o Arican

Regional Economic Communities and member states,

the ICRC is available to assist in the ratifcation, do-

mestication and entry into orce o the convention.

This eort is unique and coming rom the coun-

tries themselves, says Catherine Gendre, the heado ICRCs delegation to the AU. This type o diplo-

macy also takes patience even ater most actors

have agreed to the basic ramework. For example,

IDPs do not yet beneft rom the landmark 2009

agreement because it always takes time to have

states sign and ratiy instruments o law. Around

hal o the required 15 nations have adopted the

convention so ar, according to Gendre.

Turning pointEstablished almost 20 years ago, the ICRC delega-

tion to the AU was created with a view to advising

the bloc on humanitarian issues based on both IHL

and evidence gathered on the ground by its feld

operatives. It is also involved in a number o other

activities, including working with key panels on the

protection o conict-aected women and children.

Last year, it contributed to an international sympo-

sium on AU drat guidelines on the protection o

civilians during peacekeeping operations.

The delegation is also able to raise and discuss

humanitarian concerns with the Peace and Secu-

rity Council (PSC) during monthly meetings and,through a legal expert seconded to the Peace and

Security Department, help the AU Commission inte-

grate IHL into policies and activities.

For El Ghassim Wane, director o the powerul

PSC, a turning point in the arrangement was the

coordinated 1995 eort or the union to ban all land-

mines. We agreed to undertake three workshops,

which led to a decision by the Arican Union calling

or a total ban on all landmines, he says. It was ex-

tremely helpul working with the ICRC combining its

expertise and knowledge o landmines with our ca-

pacity to bring member states together. Since then

we have continued to work together on a range o

issues, especially humanitarian law.

An underunded crisisThe IFRC and National Societies also work closely with

key institutions and decision-makers at the AU. Thisyear, the IFRC established a permanent presence in

Ethiopias capital ater moving its continental human-

itarian diplomacy operation out o Johannesburg,

South Arica into the corridors o the Arican Union.

I I want to make a dierence I need to engage at

the very highest level, explains Stephen Omollo, the

IFRCs top Arica humanitarian diplomat. I civil soci-

ety is not up at the oreront with these issues, then no

action is taken. So we are trying to bring pressure to

bear to inuence change at the highest level possible.

This past summer, the Addis delegations aced an-

other humanitarian test, one just as dire and di cult

as the Libya conict. As drought and conict pushed

thousands o people rom Somalia into neighbour-

ing countries and arid conditions exacerbated ood


I civil society is not

up at the oreront

with these issues,

then no action is

taken. So we are

trying to bringpressure to bear to

infuence change

at the highest level

possible.

Stephen Omollo, head o

IFRCs delegation to the Arican

Union

LArican Union Commission Chairman Jean Ping and Somalias President

Shari Sheikh Ahmed arrive in Addis Ababa in late August or an Arican

Union summit on amine in Somalia and drought across the Horn o Arica.Photo: REUTERS/Stringer, courtesy www.alertnet.org

K In times o confict, treatment

o detainees is part o the ICRC

Addis Ababa delegations work

on behal o internationalhumanitarian law. Here, ghters

sit inside a prison in Benghazi,

Libya.Photo: REUTERS/Suhaib Salem/

courtesy, www.alertnet.org


9/32

insecurity throughout the region, representatives o

the AUs 54 member states gathered or a pledging

conerence or the estimated 12.4 million people in

the Horn o Arica in need o emergency assistance.

Media coverage o the event lambasted the poor

turnout o our heads o state and or the insu cient

unds (US$ 51 million) donated by Arican govern-

ments. For the Movement, the Horn o Arica crisishas posed a unique diplomatic challenge: a complex

and neglected emergency that had been oreseen

by many, but or which there has been a lethargic

and somewhat jaded international media and donor

response.

With IFRCs global emergency appeals still alling

short o goals (the Kenya drought appeal was 28 per

cent unded at press time), the organizations eorts

at the AU dovetailed with IFRCs global and very

public call or greater emergency response, as well

as sustainable solutions to recurrent drought cycles

that could and should become a greater staple o

development aid (see Focus, page 12).

This message was echoed by Omollo as he contin-

ued to work behind the scenes at the AU to reinorce

the message in one-on-one meetings. In one ex-

ample, he and a colleague held a meeting with the

president o Somalia, Shari Sheikh Ahmed, in which

they raised the issues o government support or the

Somali Red Crescent Societys operations and en-

suring we have a twin-track approach o relie work

and development.

National Societies also play a role in raising publicawareness, which can in turn inspire action in both

the public and private sphere. The Kenya Red Cross,

or example, worked with regional telecom compa-

nies to create Kenyans or Kenya, a campaign by

which people donate via cell phones. At press time,

the campaign had raised more than US$10 million,

oering a unding model or emergency relie and

long-term ood security that gives businesses and

ordinary citizens a role in aecting change.

Local credibilityOne advantage o building close ties with regional

bodies is that the diplomatic delegations are rela-

tively close to the feld. This enhances credibility and

allows or a responsive, evidence-based approach.

Our diplomacy is based on the reality on the

ground, so its something that is always linked to

a specifc situation its actual, Gendre says. I I

have to brie the president o the Peace and Security

Council, I will try to have maximum amount o inor-

mation rom my colleagues in the feld.

The chairman o the AU Commission, Jean Ping,

confrms that embellishment and exaggeration are notpart o the ICRCs modus operandi. When you see any-

one coming with proo, with inormation like the ICRC

has, the impact is dierent and more useul, he says.

The technique o speaking sotly but carrying a

big reputation allows the Red Cross Red Crescent

Movement to address thorny subjects directly and

eectively. The quiet diplomacy approach does

not mean that we are not able to talk about di cult

issues, says the IFRCs Omollo. We can talk about

di cult issues, but in a less threatening manner.

Less noise, more impactQuiet diplomacy doesnt mean that the Movement

is opaque in all its diplomatic eorts. For example,

the ICRC oten raises issues very publicly in cases

where violations o IHL go unaddressed or access

is impeded. Movement players are also oten very

public and transparent when raising the cry or an

emergency appeal, shepherding new legislation or

conronting world leaders.

Still, confdentiality is a critical diplomatic tool, par-

ticularly or the ICRC, which has a mandate to advisegovernments on compliance with IHL. I believe the

way the ICRC works is quite dierent rom others in

terms o confdentiality, Ochilet says. Confdential-

ity opens a lot o doors or the ICRC. People are aware

that we try and change things by talking ace-to-ace

to governments, not going to Voice o America or

CNN to disclose everything we have seen.

The Movements position o political neutrality

and its practice o advising governments confden-

tially sometimes invites criticism that it provides

succour to malign governments by ailing to disclose

inormation o vital public interest.

Yes, sometimes we are criticized, but the thing

is to explain why we do it this way, says the ICRCs

Gendre. I you want to have access to detainees,

you have to gain and keep the trust o those who

are doing the detaining. You cant spoil this trust,

otherwise you will not have access again.

The AU Commissions Jean Ping agrees that in A-

rica, this orm o quiet diplomacy is more eective

than the megaphone approach. The Red Cross Red

Crescent Movement, he says, makes less noise, but

has more impact.

By William Davison

William Davison is a reelance reporter based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.


I I have to brie

the president o

the Peace and

Security Council, I

will try to have the

maximum amount

o inormation rom

my colleagues in the

eld.

Catherine Gendre, head o

the ICRCs delegation to the

Arican Union

LThousands o people have

been making the treacherous

journey rom the areas in Somalia

worst-hit by drought, which are

mostly under the control o rebels,

to Mogadishu. An internally

displaced man carries his son,

suering rom cholera, into the

paediatric ward at MogadishusBanadir hospital.

Photo: REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi,

courtesy www.alertnet.org


10/32


sits, with his emale carer and walking rame nearby,

in the backyard o a private Alice Springs home in

central Australia, to which he travels or medical care.

This sot-spoken elder has himsel become a quiet

diplomat o sorts on the issue o nuclear weapons.

He wants to tell his story and help the Australian Red

Cross to Make Nuclear Weapons the Target, a cam-paign embarked upon ollowing a meeting in Oslo

in May 2011 co-sponsored by the Australian, Japa-

nese and Norwegian Red Cross societies that began

YAMI LESTER IS NEARLY 70, but being an Abo-riginal baby rom the South Australia bush,his exact birth date is unknown. His frst lan-guage was and still is Yakuytjatjara English came

much later so, even i he had heard them, he

would not have understood the patrol o cers who

came in 1953 to tell the elders at his Walatina home-

land that the British would be carrying out nuclear

tests at Emu Junction, about 160 kilometres (100miles) south as the crow ies.

What Lester, as a wee high child o 10, heard

on the morning o 15 October was a big bang. He

elt the ground shake and saw a shiny black plume

o smoke heading his way rom the south across

the mulga bushes. He thought he was witnessing

a mamu, an evil spirit. His mob, or tribe, ell sick:

vomiting, diarrhoea and skin rashes. Lester had re-

ally sore eyes. Four years later, he was totally blind.

The Royal Commission into British Nuclear Testing

in Australia in 1985 proved there was radiation allout,

but Lester, now white-haired, shows no rancour as he

J70-year-old Yami Lester went

blind ater allout rom British

nuclear tests blew through hisAustralian outback community

in the 1950s. Photo: Central AustralianAboriginal Media Association

The art ofpersuasionThe Australian Red Cross humanitarian diplomacy

team balances bold public campaigning with

behind-the-scenes persuasion on issues ranging

rom asylum and migration to nuclear weapons,

aboriginal issues and more.


11/32


a resh push or urther laws to confrm the illegality

o using nuclear weapons.

When they told me the big boss was Robert,

says Lester, rubbing his hands and smiling gener-

ously, I thought, Oh yeah, Ill talk.

Robert is Robert Tickner, the Melbourne-based

chie executive o the Australian Red Cross since

2005. He was also the longest-serving minister in the

nations Aboriginal aairs portolio and a member o

the ederal Labor Ministry rom 1990 to 1996. He is

thus well placed not only to lead the Australian Red

Cross ambitious push to put an end to nuclear war-

are but also to draw attention to another Red Cross

priority area: improving the poor health o many o

Australias oten marginalized indigenous people,

whose lie expectancy at birth is on average 20 years

shorter than other Australians.

Speak sotly, with a loud voiceThat evening in the Alice Springs township, Tickner

addresses one o dozens o public meetings the

Australian Red Cross is holding around the coun-

try to highlight the unacceptable humanitarian

consequences o the use o nuclear weapons and

encourage people to raise their voice on this issue

via social media such as Facebook.

It will be a long campaign. Tickner, however, is

hopeul that the Movement can agree upon a strong

position on these weapons at the upcoming Council

o Delegates. He notes that the Movement has otenspoken out on this topic since 1945. Like much o

the Australian Red Cross work, particularly over the

past decade, this is more than a public campaign.

Its part o a broad approach to humanitarian diplo-

macy that involves persuading all sectors o society

rom the general public to parliamentarians and

decision-makers to put into action the societys

humanitarian concerns.

Undeniably, Tickner and Brisbane-based lawyer

Greg Vickery, who was elected chairman o the

Australian Red Cross in 2003 (the title changed to

president in 2010), have worked hard to invigorate

their national society, developing a nationally cohe-

sive organization under the authority o a national

board while remaining mindul o the talent at the

grass-roots level.

Some o the bold work in pursuing a new level o

humanitarian diplomacy has occasionally included

graphic visual statements to highlight signifcant

humanitarian concerns, such as the prohibition on

torture or the illegality o using child soldiers. For in-

stance, in the streets o Australias state capitals, the

Red Cross has placed cardboard cut-outs o childrenholding machine guns to draw attention to child

soldiers, and blood-red-splattered white chairs and

The responsibility to persuadeAs the humanitarian landscape grows more complex with more actors, more requent

disasters, greater competition or resources and growing dangers acing humanitarians and

beneciaries there has been rising awareness o the need to enhance humanitarian diplomacy.

When the General Assembly o the IFRC adoptedStrategy 2020 in 2009, it identied

humanitarian diplomacy as one o three enabling actions central to the strategys success. The

subsequent adoption o the IFRCs Humanitarian Diplomacy Policy refects a new institutional

commitment to practise humanitarian diplomacy with greater consistency across the membership.

Meanwhile, more National Societies are investing in humanitarian diplomacy: adopting plans

and policies, as well as hiring humanitarian diplomacy ocal points. National Societies are best

placed to persuade decision-makers and opinion-leaders to act in the interests o the vulnerable,

says Goli Ameri, IFRCs under-secretary general or humanitarian values and diplomacy. As

auxiliaries to public authorities, they have the access to national and local governments.

But National Societies also ace many challenges, according to a recent IFRC survey o National

Society diplomatic readiness. The external obstacles include lack o government transparency

and misunderstandings about, or lack o interest in, the work o the National Society.

The internal challenges include retaining trained sta, making eective use o the auxiliary

role, lack o resources, dening areas o ocus, inconsistent evidence-gathering and reporting

systems, and a need to improve networking, lobbying and communications skills. The IFRC isdeveloping tools to help, some o which can now be ound on FedNet, where National Societies

are sharing diplomatic successes and rustrations.

JIn addition to high-level

humanitarian diplomacy, the

Australian Red Cross takes its

message to the streets. These lie-

sized posters, along with ull-sized

cut-outs, were placed in public

squares as part o its Even Wars

Have Rules campaign.

hu

Au

m

siz

cu

sq

Ha


12/32

dummies with hooded heads and rope

nooses to highlight torture.

Thin red lineBut such campaigns, say Tickner and

Vickery, are staged at careully chosen times to avoid

being seen as partisan responses to debates in parlia-

ment. Helen Durham, the Australian Red Cross head

o international law and principles, says the aim is to

ocus the public discourse and analysis on the impli-

cations or international humanitarian law (IHL) and

humanitarian issues not on political considerations.

Shes the frst to admit its only human to want to

speak frst with the heart. Every now and then I think,

Imagine the reedom to go out there and say whatI eel, she says. Im passionate and committed to

the work we do, but I deeply understand the need

to have a line in the Red Cross. We can be as creative,

innovative and exciting as we can, but always within

the undamental principles ollowed by the Red Cross

and Red Crescent everywhere in the world.

The pay-o or keeping within those principles is

that the Australian Red Cross can and does get

to make more specifc private suggestions and express

concerns, and gains access to areas o government

where other organizations that are publicly critical fnd

the door closed. Working this way, these humanitarian

diplomats argue, means the Red Cross is best placed

to assert and protect the needs o the vulnerable.

Tickner lists as Red Cross successes the Austral-

ian governments support or ratiying the ban on

landmines and the release o some women and child

asylum seekers into community detention. The Red

Cross recently mobilized to provide housing and

support or these reugee applicants in several

Australian cities, complementing its long-standing

oversight role and unlimited access to detention

centres. That role includes making confdential quar-terly reports on conditions.

Tickner predicts the Australian government will

also support a ban on cluster munitions, a project the

Red Cross Red Crescent Movement has worked hard

on with strong humanitarian diplomacy eorts. Ater

a number o submissions to government committees

and letters to relevant ministers rom the Australian

Red Cross, it appears that legislation on this topic will

come beore the ederal parliament this year.

How ar can you go?Despite Australia having a robust liberal democracy,there is always a sensitive value judgement about

how ar you can go in publicly articulating a case or

change, based on humanitarian principles, without

taking sides, without becoming a partisan political

player, says Tickner. Conversely, there are also some

times when Red Cross commitment to particular

principles may be so core, we have a duty to articu-

late the case and can perhaps push the boundaries

o what is possible urther in those particular cases.

Notably, while the Australian Red Cross has trained

without controversy some 140 indigenous people to

work in communities and deal with issues o Aborigi-

nal violence, health and diet, the ormer government

led by John Howard also asked the Red Cross to join

its intervention in the Northern Territory, a policy

under which the army was sent into remote indig-

enous communities to combat child abuse, banning

alcohol and pornography and restricting how Abo-

riginal people spend their social service payments.

The present government has continued the in-

tervention. But the prospect o hitching the Red

Cross wagon to the army and accepting money thatwould otherwise have been destined or indigenous

peoples personal bank accounts were both clear

deal-breakers or the Australian Red Cross.

We thought that was a very polarized space,

states Tickner. Essentially, we were oered unds

that had been quarantined [taken directly rom

Aboriginal peoples bank accounts] as a result o the

intervention, rom individuals, and we took the view

that was not the space that we could properly go

into, consistent with our principles.

In Brisbane, Greg Vickery elaborates: We did not

want to be seen as playing a part in a compulsory

intervention into communities. We thought the

purpose was worthy but the method was inap-

propriate. So we didnt get directly involved we

basically said, No look, well work in the community

ourselves, but were not going to work as part o the

intervention, we dont want to be working as part o

the government on this matter.

Growing recognitionThe Australian Red Cross steadily growing profle in

the humanitarian feld has meant ederal, state and ter-ritory governments are increasingly recognizing and

calling upon the auxiliary role to public authorities that

the society has always possessed. The National Society,


Sometimes when

the Red Crosscommitment to

particular principles

may be so core,

we have a duty to

articulate the case

and can perhaps

push the boundaries

o what is possible.

Robert Tickner, Australian

Red Cross CEO

J The Australian Red Cross

humanitarian diplomacy team:

CEO Robert Tickner and President

Greg Vickery. Photo: Sebastien

Calmus/IFRC

K Humanitarian law proessor and

adviser Helen Durham.Photo: Australian Red Cross


13/32


or example, made its presence elt strongly and switly

during this years Queensland oods, undertaking the

large logistical exercise o running the shelters or the

people whose homes were inundated.

Persuasion amid the realpolitik o parliament

requires players o all political stripes. Although

Tickner let the Australian Labor Party 15 years ago

and Vickery, a ormer vice-president o QueenslandsLiberal Party, has not been active in politics or 20

years, the national board includes Kate Carnell, a

ormer Australian Capital Territory chie minister,

who maintains a strong Liberal Party network, and

David Hammill, a ormer Queensland Labor state

treasurer, who still has Labor Party ties.

Sometimes, its about persuading the govern-

ment to act in a diicult international political

environment. Geo Skillen, a ormer senior lawyer

with the ederal Attorney-Generals department

and long-term member o the Red Cross IHL com-

mittee he was appointed chairman last year

recalls that in 2001 and 2002 it looked as though

the Australian government might not support the

ratifcation o the International Criminal Court (ICC)

given the staunch opposition o the US administra-

tion under ormer president George W. Bush.

Australia did eventually ratiy the ICC, ater the

Australian Red Cross comprehensive submission

and appearance beore a parliamentary committee.

I believe the Red Cross attitude was instrumental in

persuading [the parliamentary committee] to avour

ratifcation, says Skillen.

Inormal channelsOten, diplomacy depends on undamental rela-

tionship skills building trust, keeping your word,

respecting conidentiality. Having connections

doesnt hurt either and phoning a riend is oten

part o the equation.

The co-convenor o the Parliamentary Friends o

the Red Cross, ederal Queensland Labor parliamen-

tarian Graham Perrett, says inormal channels are

key: he can readily call Attorney-General Rob Mc-

Clelland or Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd to discuss

pressing Red Cross concerns. Kevins my next-door

neighbour and hes a big inuence on my being in

parliament in the frst place, says Perrett o Rudd,

who is also a ormer prime minister.

Those networks will continue to be crucial, as newchallenges arise. For several months until the end o

August, the Australian government under Prime Min-

ister Julia Gillard was indicating it intended to press

ahead with the so-called Malaysia solution to send

800 new asylum seekers to Malaysia, in exchange or

4,000 already processed reugees, in a bid to deter

people smugglers and new arrivals by boat.

Weve done our private advocacy on that, says

Vickery. Weve let [the Australian government]

know what we think. But nonetheless we will work

with that our humanitarian imperative is to help

because they [the asylum seekers] are in need and

someone needs to be looking ater them.

That oer derives rom Australian Red Cross work

programmes with asylum seekers in Australia, and

will be available in uture or whatever other arrange-

ments might be made or oshore processing in the

wake o a six-to-one ruling o the High Court o Aus-

tralia on 31 August which restrained the Australian

government rom sending the 800 asylum seekers

to Malaysia. The Australian Red Cross will maintain

its role as a strong persuader, a humanitarian diplo-

mat, on behal o these vulnerable voyagers.

By Steve Dow

Steve Dow is a reelance journalist based in Sydney, Australia.

The work aheadJust as Dunants real work began ater Solerino, the successes o the Movements diplomatic

eorts rom 2011s statutory meetings will be measured in the months and years that ollow.

Eective diplomacy, many say, is not just about our ability to persuade, the access granted by the

Movements unique status or our connections to people with power and money. Its about ollow-up.

The pledges made and resolutions adopted will require consistent monitoring and shepherding, both

to ensure ull implementation and to lay the groundwork or uture renements and strengthening.

A key part o that ollow-up involves building the capacity o the Movement players to eectivelygather, analyse and report on evidence rom the eld. The Movement message, many note, is only as

good as its ability both to deliver and to convincingly show that its making a concrete dierence.

We need to develop tools that go beyond the key messages and position papers, says Mirwan

Jilani, who heads IFRCs delegation to the United Nations. We need to provide governments with

serious documentation that will support National Societies in doing this kind o diplomacy.

That means improving systems or getting quality inormation quickly to and rom the eld

and then to governments, the media and international and regional bodies.

Others interviewed about humanitarian diplomacy also said there is a need or better

Movement cooperation and coordination, a disciplined, Movement-wide ocus on key issues and

better integration o humanitarian diplomacy into emergency response.

Humanitarian diplomacy needs to be better integrated into initial emergency assessments,

Jilani adds, so that we can start tackling issues [such as customs, access, land use] rom the

beginning all the way through to recovery.

KHumanitarian diplomacy can

boost a National Societys role as

auxiliary in emergencies while

ensuring independence. Here,

Australian Red Cross rst-aiders

treat a re ghter in an area

aected by bushres that claimed

the lives o 210 people, in 2009.Photo: Rodney Dekker/Australian Red Cross


14/32


Desperate hunger

Focus

Drought. Confict and armed violence. High energy costs. Climate

change. Inequities in ood production and distribution. Changes

to traditional pastoral and agricultural systems. Donor atigue.

These are a ew reasons why 1 billion people go hungry or

malnourished every day, despite ample global ood production,

according to IFRCs World Disasters Report 2011. The crisis in the

Horn o Arica is an extreme example and it highlights why oodinsecurity is one o the Movements most vexing humanitarian

and diplomatic challenges. As the Movement deploys urgent

lie-saving aid to millions, it must also advocate or sustainable,

local solutions in a world jaded by recurring natural and man-

made crises. These photos, rom the Horn o Arica and beyond,

highlight the causes and consequences o hunger and oer

some images o hope or home-grown humanitarian solutions.

L Well beore the most recent drought cycle, the ICRC and the Somalia Red Crescent Society

were providing emergency medical and ood assistance throughout Somalia, including areas

controlled by rebels. Above, a worker or the Somalia Red Crescent constructs a shelter at a

camp or displaced people in Puntland. Photo: Olav Saltbones/ICRC

KEven beore drought and confict orced a massive migration into Kenya and Ethiopia, violence and ood insecurity had already displaced thousands o people to makeshit camps in

Somalias capital Mogadishu, where they aced the prospect o amine. Below, a woman and child who have just arrived at a temporary camp in Mogadishus Hodan district.Photo: REUTERS/Feisal Omar, courtesy www.alertnet.org


15/32


IWith a population o roughly a hal a million, Kenyas Dadaab camp

is the worlds largest reugee encampment. A testament to the chronic

nature o armed violence in neighbouring Somalia and o ood insecurity

in the region, the UNHCR camp is more than two decades old; many

teenagers here have known no other home. Right, reugees gather or

prayer. Photo: REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst, courtesy www.alertne.org

JLIn north-east Kenya, near the Somali border, the drought has

lasted or our years. Water holes have dried up and people spend all

their energy hauling water. Already acing competition or grazing land,

nomadic people here have lost almost all their goats, cattle and camels

their primary investment and their only source o money and ood.Photos: Jakob Dall/Danish Red Cross


16/32

Focus

LThe Horn o Arica is not the only area where climatic events are causing ood shortages. Around the world,

foods, tropical storms and wildres ruin crops that are essential to large populations. Lake Penuelas, on the

outskirts o Valparaiso, Chile has all but dried up. Food prices have soared as a result, leaving the countrys

poorest citizens the hardest hit. Photo: REUTERS/Eliseo Fernandez, courtesy www.alertnet.org

LIFood insecurity is not always an issue o ood availability. Globally,

there is su cient ood to eed a growing population. But even though

there is ample ood, more than a billion people go hungry. One o the

least understood causes are the commodities markets. Speculation in

cities such as London, Tokyo or Chicago can aect ood prices as ar away

as India, where ood price infation has recently been in double-digits.Photo (right): REUTERS/Ajay Verma, courtesy www.alertnet.org

Photo (above): REUTERS/Kevin Coombs, courtesy www.alertnet.org



17/32


IDespite the despair engendered by chronic ood

insecurity, there are reasons or hope. Sustainable

ood and livelihoods development is putting the

power o ood production in local hands. A big

part o the US$ 10 million raised by the Kenya Red

Cross Societys Kenyans or Kenya campaign, or

example, goes towards agricultural development. In

Somalia, ICRC projects have dramat ically increased

grain production and livestock health, while

Movement eorts elsewhere have transormed aid-

dependent communities into ood producers. In the

Maphungwane (right) area o Swaziland, members

o the Swaziland Red Cross grow vegetables on small

lots as part o a ood-security and income-generating

programme. Photo: Yoshi Shimizu/IFRC

K Below, the Tana River Drought Recovery Project

in Kenya helps ormer pastoralists earn mo ney

by growing bananas, mangos, papayas, peppers,tomatoes and melons on 33 nearby arms. Still, armed

confict remains one o the most intractable barriers

to durable ood security in the Horn o Arica and

around the globe. Both a cause and an eect o ood

insecurity, confict poses perhaps the most di cult

diplomatic challenge or those trying to nd long-

term ood security solutions. Photo: Jonathan Kalan/IFRC


18/32


AS THE AUGUST SUN beat down, the still,sticky air was flled with the shrill hum o ci-cadas. It was only a ew minutes ater 08:00,but already the day was fercely hot. In the grounds

o Koi Primary School in western Hiroshima, the

headmaster decided to give the sweat-sodden

schoolchildren a ew minutes break rom their daily

semaphore practice.

As the youngsters sat in the shade o the

ginkgo and cherry blossom trees, one boy sud-

denly pointed up to a silver dot in the cloudless,

azure sky. A B-29! he shouted. Reiko Yamada,

sitting with her riends on the edge o the sand-

pit, looked up, scanning the blue expanse or the

American plane.

I thought the plane was gone at frst, but itstarted to turn and I remember thinking how

pretty its vapour trail looked, she says. Then, all

o a sudden, there was a blinding white ash and

everybody instantly began to run or the schools

air-raid shelter. I elt the hot sand on my back as

I ran, and I was blown over beore I reached the

shelter.

Struggling under the branches o an uprooted

tree, 11-year-old Yamada managed to ree hersel

and sprint down the steps to the crowded bunker.

Although she didnt realize it during those frst

disorientating moments, the United States had just

dropped the worlds frst atomic bomb 2.5 kilome-

tres (1.5 miles) to the east, less than a month ater

successully testing a similar device in the New Mex-

ico desert. The date was 6 August 1945.

The Enola Gay dropped its deadly payload, con-

taining 60 kilograms (132lbs) o uranium-235, at 8:15.

At 580 metres (1,900 eet) above the centre o the

city that was flled with people heading to work andschool on a Monday morning, Little Boy detonated.

Destructive efectsA brilliant ash brighter than the sun temporar-

ily blinded anyone looking in the direction o the

explosion as a freball o white heat, measuring

thousands o degrees Celsius, instantly vaporized or

Banning the

KThe atermath o the atomic

bomb dropped on Hiroshima

August 1945 is chilling testimony

to the catastrophic humanitarian

consequences o nuclear weapons.The sheer devastation serves

as a stark reminder o why

these weapons are inherently

inconsistent with international

humanitarian law, which requires

ghting parties to protect non-

combatants, humanitarian workers

and the wounded. Photo: ICRC

Sixty-six years ater two atomic bombs destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki

and two decades ater the Cold War ended some say the time is right

to restart the drive towards the elimination o nuclear weapons.


19/32


carbonized almost everyone close to the hypocen-

tre. At the same time, intense heat rays and radiation

were released and a powerul shockwave radiated

out rom the blast, obliterating buildings up to 4km

(2.5 miles) away. A billowing column o white smoke,

reaching up to 17,000 metres (55,770t), ormed a

giant mushroom cloud over the shattered, burning

remains o the city. A smothering blanket o smoke

and dust turned day to night.

Yamada was heading towards the hills around

Hiroshima when black oily drops o radioactive rain

began to all. We were shivering and our teeth were

chattering, it was so cold, the 77-year-old recalls.

We didnt know i we were shivering because o the

cold or because we were scared.

Up to 80,000 people were killed instantly by theexplosion. Another 70,000 suered horrifc burns

and other injuries. But with a vast area o Hiroshima

levelled, including most o the hospitals, there were

ew acilities and medical sta to help deal with the

catastrophe. Chaos reigned.

Even beore the ICRCs Marcel Junod be-

came the irst western medical expert to set oot

in Hiroshima ater the bombing, the ICRC had

questioned whether atomic weapons were lawul

in a 5 September 1945 circular to National Socie-

ties: It is clear that developments in aviation and

the increasingly destructive eects o bombing

have made practically inapplicable the distinc-

tions hitherto drawn, whereby certain classes

o people had by right a special protection (orinstance, the civil population in contrast to the

armed orces).

There was little doubt that the events o Au-

gust 1945, as well as numerous other incidents

during the six years o the Second World War, had

ushered in a new era o warare that would have

serious implications or the Geneva Conventions

and Protocols, the treaties that established the

humane rules o war. Since humanitarianism was

at the heart o the e orts o the ICRC, the organi-

zation was determined to ensure the protection

o civilian populations during conlicts through

international law.

While the 17th International Conerence o the

Red Cross, which met in Stockholm in 1948, took

a frm stand against atomic weapons, the overrid-

ing message o the ollowing years Diplomatic

Conerence was somewhat ambiguous. Although

the conerence a rmed the principle o civilian

immunity during wartime in the Fourth Geneva

Convention, the delegation o the Soviet Union

didnt believe it went ar enough and called or a

ban on the use o atomic weapons. The proposalwas rejected.

A little over two weeks ater the end o the coner-

ence, the Soviets successully carried out their frst

nuclear test. A modern, deadly arms race had begun.

The ensuing years o the Cold War were marked by

hundreds o nuclear tests (which also resulted in seri-

ous humanitarian consequences), the development

I elt the hot sand

on my back as I ran,

and I was blown over

beore I reached the

shelter.

Reiko Yamada,77-year-old

Hiroshima survivor

bomb

Photo:

NickJones


20/32


o ever-more powerul weapons and an expansion

o the so-called nuclear club.

Contrary to the rulesIn the years ater the all o the Berlin Wall with

Cold War brinksmanship at an end the interna-

tional community shited towards containing the

prolieration o nuclear weapons and themajor powers towards reducing existing

stockpiles via Strategic Arms Reduction

Treaties (START I and START II).

Although various agreements, such

as the Treaty on the Non-Prolieration

o Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and numer-

ous test-ban and arms-control treaties,

have sought to reduce arsenals, pre-

vent the spread o weapons and stop

nuclear testing, none o these pacts

has restricted the actual use o nuclear

weapons.

While the nuclear superpowers have cut their ar-

senals signifcantly rom roughly 60,000 warheads

to about 22,000 today the number o countries

in the nuclear club has increased. The destructive

power o any one o those weapons is many times

that o the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Na-

gasaki.

The international community has tried to stem

this prolieration with sanctions and intense diplo-

matic pressure. But in recent years, many among the

worlds diplomatic and military elite have suggestedthat these diplomatic eorts would be more eec-

tive i nuclear-armed countries took even bolder

steps towards eventual disarmament, an important

goal o the NPT.

Theres been a realization that the only way to

stop this trend o prolieration is to have a credible

process that leads to the elimination and prohibi-

tion o nuclear weapons, says Peter Herby, head o

ICRCs Arms Unit.

Several ormer military leaders and statesmen

members o the diplomatic elite who in some cases

were hawkish deenders o nuclear weapons during

their careers have recently made strong state-

ments calling or reductions in and the elimination

o stockpiles.

These calls are not entirely based on humanitarian

concerns. Because nuclear weapons are extremely

expensive to maintain, many political and military

leaders question the value o weapons that e-

ectively cannot be used or political and moral

reasons and which are ar rom the weapon o

choice in modern asymmetric warare.

Catastrophic consequencesAt the same time, due to persistent advocacy by

the ICRC and others, there is also growing recogni-

A hero o HiroshimaAs streams o blackened gures clogged the roads out o the decimated city, hundreds o

kilometres away in Japanese-controlled Manchuria a 41-year-old Swiss doctor visited Allied

prisoners o war. Marcel Junod was on his way to Tokyo to take up his new post as head o the

ICRC delegation. Arriving in the Japanese capital on 9 August, he was oblivious to what had

happened in Hiroshima three days beore and that morning in Nagasaki.

By the end o the month, an ICRC delegate, Fritz Bilnger, managed to reachHiroshima. His telegram detailing the extent o the horriying devastation and

mysteriously serious eects o the bomb prompted Junod to contact the Allied

occupation orces and appeal or ood and medical supplies or the victims in

Hiroshima.

On 8 September, accompanying a special investigation team o ten Americans

and two Japanese doctors, along with 12 tonnes o relie supplies, Junod set o

or western Japan. In a paper entitled The Hiroshima Disaster, he described the

scene as the plane few over the port city: The centre o the city was a sort o

white patch, fattened and smooth like the palm o a hand. Nothing remained.

As the rst oreign doctor to visit the ormer bustling preectural capital,

Junod, whom Reiko Yamada reers to as the saviour o Hiroshima, toured the

apocalyptic landscape. In the midst o an indescribable pile o broken tiles, rusty sheet iron,

chassis o machines, burnt-out cars, derailed trams and buckled lines, a ew trees pointed their

charred and fayed trunks to the sky, he wrote. On the banks o the river, boats lay gutted. Here

and there, a large stone building was still standing, breaking

the monoto ny.

One such building that remained was the concrete-

constructed Red Cross Hospital, situated 1.5km (0.9 miles)

rom the hypocentre. Heavily damaged and without much o

its equipment, the hospital was inundated with 1,000 patients

on the day o the blast; 600 died almost immediately. Junod

witnessed many more similar scenes o hopelessness elsewhere.

Ater observing so much indiscriminate destruction andsuering, Junod was convinced that nuclear weapons should

be banned in much the same way that poison gas had been

ater the First World War through the 1925 Geneva Protocol.

I this weapon is used in a uture war, he warned, we shall

experience the annihilation o thousands o human beings in

appalling suering.

I this weapon is

used in a uture

war, we shall

experience the

annihilation o

thousands ohuman beings

in appalling

suering.

Marcel Junod

Photo:

ICRC

Photo:

Japanese

Red

Cross

Soc

iety


21/32


tion o the humanitarian consequences o nuclear

weapons. One o the key developments came in

May 2010, when a review conerence o NPT states

drated a resolution that expresses deep concern

about the catastrophic humanitarian consequences

o any use o nuclear weapons and rea rms the

need or all states to comply with international

humanitarian law. This may come across as a rather bland state-

ment in the ace o the destructive power o nuclear

weapons. But these 27 words are signifcant. They

mark the irst time in the treatys history that

signatory states have made any o cial acknowl-

edgement o the human toll o nuclear weapons.

Now all NPT states have recognized these cata-

strophic humanitarian consequences. And once

youve recognized this, it entails a certain responsi-

bility to act, adds Herby.

While the NPT conerences statement alls short

o clearly stating that nuclear weapons violate hu-

manitarian law, it does, says Herby, raise a big

question about the legality o nuclear weapons

because IHL [international humanitarian law] is

specifcally intended to prevent catastrophic hu-

manitarian consequences rom warare.

Its an important step as there is still no defni-

tive legal consensus declaring nuclear weapons

contrary to IHL. Although the International Court

o Justice did conclude in 1996 that the use o nu-

clear weapons would generally be contrary to the

rules o international law, the court was uncertainon whether using them in extreme cases o sel-de-

ence would be unlawul or not.

Nuclear diplomacyThe statement rom the NPT states, meanwhile, did

not come by chance. Like much o the language con-

tained in international accords, these two phrases

were the result o intense diplomatic eorts by vari-

ous parties, working independently, to develop a

consensus among states party to the treaty.

In the days, weeks and months beore the May 2010

NPT review conerence, the Swiss delegation to the

conerence developed and lobbied or such language

while Swiss ederal councillor Micheline Calmy-Rey

made a speech suggesting that nuclear weapons are

essentially illegal under international law.

ICRC President Jakob Kellenbergers address to

diplomats in Geneva just weeks beore the NPT con-

erence added to the renewed emphasis. Coming

exactly a year ater US President Barack Obama out-

lined his vision or a nuclear-ree world in a landmark

speech in Prague, Kellenberger urged all countries

to ensure that the horrors o Hiroshima and Naga-saki were never repeated.

The ICRC today appeals to all states, and to all in

a position to inuence them, to seize with determi-

nation and urgency the unique opportunities now

at hand to bring the era o nuclear weapons to an

end, he said.

Timed just beore the NPT conerence, the speech

was accompanied by a media communications e-

ort that brought additional attention and pressure

to bear.

IFRC President Tadateru Konoe has made simi-

lar speeches, decrying nuclear arms as a weapon

against humanity. Earlier this year, he discussed

nuclear weapons (and the Movements response tonuclear emergencies such as Fukushima) in a meet-

ing with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who

also supports the call or a world ree o nuclear

weapons.

A historic momentWhile most o these steps have not been widely re-

ported and the public seldom know about them,

momentum is clearly building. Right now is a

unique moment in history, and some might say the

last moment, to really address this issue beore the

genie is completely out o the bottle, beore more

states, and potentially non-state armed groups,

have nuclear weapons, says Herby.

Ironically, public awareness and concern over

nuclear weapons is at a low point, having aded

considerably since the Cold War era. At the

moment, there is not a large public cry or the elim-

ination o nuclear weapons, says Herby. People

think that it was solved at end o Cold War, which

is not the case. Still, in the ace o a lot o public

apathy, there is something very positive happening

right now. The way to seize the moment, says Herby, is to

help shape the environment so that states are under

pressure not to use or acquire nuclear weapons and

Pursue in good

aith and conclude

with urgency and

determination

negotiations to

prohibit the use

o and completely

eliminate nuclear

weapons througha legally binding

international

agreement,

based on existing

commitments

and international

obligations.

Text rom a drat resolution tobe presented to the Council o

Delegations on the elimination

o nuclear weapons

LKnown as the Atomic Bomb

Dome, this building survived the

Hiroshima bombing though it was

at, or very near, the centre o the

explosion. Photo: Nick Jones


22/32


The Hospital o Hope still treats Hiroshimas survivorsHiroo Dohy (below) points to a clump o blackened rock in a wooden cabinet and

explains how the ossil-like mass was once roo tiles. This was 350 metres [1,000

eet] rom the hypocentre and it was melted into one piece, he says.

Lining the walls o the dingy, one-roomed museum o a nondescript corridor

in the Hiroshima Red Cross Hospital are glass-ronted shelves lled with pickled

human organs. There are slices o emur bones in jars, revealing leukaemia-saturated marrow, alongside diseased livers, lungs and brains.

Sixty-six years ago, they all belonged to men and women who, on the morning

o 6 August 1945, happened to be in the centre o Hiroshima commuting to

work, running errands, chatting with riends. When the worlds rst atomic bomb

exploded above the city, they received massive doses o radiation and most likely

appalling injuries rom the reball and blast wave.

Eventually succumbing to leukaemia and various orms o cancer, their deaths

are recorded succinctly in English and Japanese on cards next to the jars. Autopsy

No. 84. Age 54, Male. Exposed (1.0km). Acute Myeloid Leukemia. Cryptococcosis.

Date o Autopsy: February 1, 1959. reads one summary. Beside it sits a section o

a grey, inected lung.

The room today serves as a stark reminder o that hot summers day and the

enduring eects o the weapon that ell rom the cloudless sky.

Unlike most buildings in the vicinity o the hypocentre, the concrete-

constructed Red Cross Hospital remained largely intact. Although the devastating

shockwave blew out the windows and destroyed much o the interior, the acility

owes its survival to its solid design.

Ken Takeuchi, an army surgeon who had studied medicine in Germany and the

United States, oversaw the hospitals construction in 1939. My mother used to

say that her ather was so involved in designing the hospital because, I think, he

had such a precise, engineering mind, says Mitchie Takeuchi, the granddaughter

o the hospitals rst president.

Naturally, the hospital was inundated with hundreds o horrically burnt and

injured victims on that ateul day, many o whom died soon ater. Marcel Junod,

head o the ICRCs Japan delegation, arrived at the hospital on 9 September. All the

laboratory equipment had been put out o action. Part o the roo had caved in and

the hospital was open to the wind and rain, he wrote in his journal o that time.

While the old building has since been torn down (a section o it has beenplaced at the entrance o the new hospital), the Hiroshima Red Cross and Atomic

Bomb Survivors Hospital remains in the same location. A relie o Junod can be

seen in the entrance o the hospital, while another monument to the Swiss doctor

is located in the citys Memorial Peace Park.

In my understanding, the Atomic Bomb Survivors Hospital is a symbol and a

psychological support or the survivors, explains Dohy, the institutions present-

day president who was born just outside Hiroshima less than a month beore the

atomic bomb was dropped. The treatment o leukaemia and cancer is the same

as at other hospitals, but some survivors choose to come here.

The hospital now treats more than 100 survivors, or hibakusha as they are

reerred to in Japanese, as inpatients and around the same number as outpatients

each day. Naturally, many o the hospitals sta are experts in health matters related

to radiation exposure, and the hospital has trained numerous doctors rom abroad.

Following the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986, a number o medical sta

were dispatched to Russia, Belarus and Ukraine to provide support. And only

this year, 15 advisers rom the hospital travelled to Fukushima Preecture to aid

local Red Cross personnel ater a devastating earthquake and tsunami crippled a

nuclear plant there.

Although irrevocably linked to the atomic bomb, the Hiroshima Red Cross Hospital

continues to use that legacy to help both survivors and those who all victim to the

potentially deadly energy that lay waste to the city one morning in 1945.

by Nick Jones

Photo:

NickJones


23/32

through new international agreements.

National Societies can help by creating more

dialogue and awareness about the catastrophic

humanitarian consequences o nuclear arms and

by persuading their governments to address

nuclear weapons, through prevention and elimi-

nation.

This will be easier or some National Societiesthan or others. In some countries, the nuclear

question is deeply connected to national iden-

tity and politics. But advocates say there

is consensus that National Societies can

play a role by ocusing solely on the hu-

manitarian consequences o the weapons

and the implications they pose or IHL.

We need to broaden the base o con-

cern, Herby notes. For decades, this

advocacy has been in the hands o nuclear

weapons experts and associated think

tanks, and civil society NGOs [non-govern-

mental organizations], most o whom at

the moment do not have a broad base o

support.

Human agencyNational Societies, however, do have a

broad base. A consortium o National Societies

Australia, Japan and Norway are running an

international campaign on the issue. The Australian

Red Cross is engaging younger Australians by using

local celebrities and digital media, such as a web sitethat demonstrated the eects o a nuclear explosion

on an Australian city by calculating the number o

Facebook riends a user would lose.

Preben Marcussen, a policy adviser with the

Norwegian Red Cross, says that the Red Cross Red

Crescent, as a credible humanitarian organization,

has the potential to reinvigorate an international

campaign that peaked in the 1980s. A stronger

Red Cross Red Crescent voice will ensure that the

global debate ocuses upon nuclear weapons as

an urgent humanitarian challenge, and that it will

bring about the political pressure the world needs,

he says.

The next big chance to exert that pressure will

come during Novembers Council o Delegates,

which is expected to adopt a resolution that will be

reported to the International Conerence.

The resolution is a result o consultations between

the ICRC, National Societies and the IFRC in May 2011

in Oslo, Norway, where the elements o a possible

resolution were presented to 21 National Societies.

Organized by the Australian, Japanese and Norwe-

gian Red Cross societies, the meeting was ollowedby urther consultations that then became the basis

o the drat resolution.

The drat presented to the Council o Delegates

appeals to states to ensure that nuclear weapons

are never used again and to pursue in good aith

and conclude with urgency and determination ne-

gotiations to prohibit the use o and completely

eliminate nuclear weapons through a legally bind-

ing international agreement, based on existing

commitments and international obligations.

It also calls on all components o the Movement,

in light o our common commitment to humani-

tarian diplomacy, to engage in activities to raise

awareness among the public, scientists, health pro-essionals and decision-makers o the catastrophic

consequences o nuclear weapons and to engage,

to the extent possible, in dialogue with government

and other relevant actors on the implications or IHL.

The resolution, it is hoped, will cre

Documents

Red Cross, Red Crescent Magazine. No. 3, 2011