The Moral Dilemma of the ICRCMacy Justice

What Would You Do?

The Actions of the ICRC

• Illegal?

•No

•Unethical?

• Yes

The Founding of the ICRC

•Henry Dunant

• Battle of Solferino

•Switzerland

•Neutrality

No Protection for Civilians• 1929 Geneva Convention

• Combatants

• Fourth Hague Convention

• Civilians in occupied territories

• Administrative Detainees

• No coverage

Visits to Concentration Camps• Concentration Camp,

Internment Camps

•Defraudment

• Theresienstadt, 1944

• Dr. Rossel

Delegation System•Negotiate

•Center in Berlin

• Roland Marti

Parcel System• Leading effort

• Identification

• Early 1944

•Dietary Needs

• “Well fed dead”

Public Statement• Controversial

•No legal obligation

• Compromise

Why Not Directly Intervene?• Lack of treaty provisions

• Illegal

• German policy

• Domestic issue

• Harm other operations

• Lose access to POW camps

Conclusions & Consequences• International Humanitarian

Law

• Ethical?

• Genocide Convention (1948)

• International community

Picture Sources• https://weaponsandwarfare.com/2016/01/29/battle-of-solferino/

• https://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/Military_Law/GC_poster-2.html

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theresienstadt_concentration_camp

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Cross_parcel

• https://www.icrc.org/en/document/remembering-shoah-icrc-and-international-communitys-efforts-responding-genocide-and

• http://www.kosherdelight.com/GermanyJewishHistoryAndHolocaust.shtml

• http://restoringfamilylinksblog.com/blog/2014/10/30/humanitarian-diplomacy-and-principled-humanitarian-action

Bibliography• Blondel, Jean-Luc. "Getting Access to the Victims: Role and Activities of the ICRC." Journal of Peace Research 24, no. 3 (1987): 307-314.

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• Favez, Jean-Claude. The Red Cross and the Holocaust. Cambridge, U.K. ; New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1999.

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• Penkower, Monty Noam. "The World Jewish Congress Confronts the International Red Cross during the Holocaust." Jewish Social Studies 41, no. 3/4 (1979): 229-56