Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement

The Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is made up of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and the International Federation (IFRC). Its seven Fundamental Principles are humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity and universality.

How it began: the Battle of Solferino in northern Italy was fought on 24 June 1859. Henry Dunant, who saw its aftermath, published A Memory of Solferino in 1862, calling for better care of wounded soldiers. In February 1863 the five-member committee that became the ICRC first met in Geneva. The first National Society was founded in Wurttemberg in November 1863. In August 1864 governments adopted the first Geneva Convention, which obliged armies to care for wounded soldiers whichever side they fought on, and made a red cross on a white background the emblem of medical services.

In Punjab and Partition

• The British Red Cross says it spent 20,000 pounds of its own funds on supplies, divided equally between India and Pakistan, and gave 25,000 pounds and 12 ambulances to the Indian Red Cross. Its page also records that a Red Cross hospital with 400 beds was established in Lahore.
• The ICRC wrote to Lord Mountbatten and Muhammad Ali Jinnah on 17 December 1947 and sent a delegate, Dr Otto Wenger. His reports ran from February 1948, and he visited prisoner-of-war and internment camps in 1948.
• There was no ICRC delegate in the country from late June to November 1948, when a second mission led by Dr Marti arrived.
• Pakistan recognised the Geneva Conventions on 2 February 1948, and the Pakistan Red Cross was recognised on 21 July 1948.

Neither the British Red Cross page nor the ICRC article we could open gives a detailed account of Red Cross work in the Punjab refugee camps, so this page does not claim one.