International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement
The Red Cross activities are being vigorously carried out today to protect people’s lives and health and stabilize their life during frequent conflicts and natural disasters in different parts of the world.
The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement dates back to a big battle in Solferino in northern Italy in June 1859. The battle caused as many as 40, 000 casualties to the warring parties, with the wounded, abandoned and untended waiting helplessly for death. Henry Dunant, a Swiss passerby on his business trip, was horrified to see the scene and organized volunteers from nearby villages to come to their aid. Later, in “Un Souvenir de Solferino”, Dunant, an eyewitness of the Battle of Solferino, proposed the formation of humanitarian organizations in all countries, capable of assisting medical activities. He also proposed an international agreement on protecting those who deliver aid services on the war fields. His proposal was well received in Switzerland, followed by the formation of the International Committee for Relief to the Wounded to realize the humanitarian ideal. And the committee was renamed the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in 1876.
After the World War I, the Red Cross organizations were created in many countries with the increasing demand and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies was founded in 1919 because of the need to cooperate and coordinate each other more closely.
The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is comprised of the ICRC, IFRC and the national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies.
The Red Cross Society of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK RCS), founded on October 18, 1946, joined the IFRC in May 1956 and has been playing the role as an auxiliary organization to the DPRK government in various fields including health and hygiene, disaster relief and prevention.
In the future, the DPRK RCS will make every effort to thoroughly apply the people-first principle to its work as an auxiliary organization to the DPRK government and thus promote the people’s health and well-being.
