International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement
Today, frequent armed conflicts, natural disasters of different kinds and public health crisis etc. pose a great threat to humankind.
This highlights the role of the Red Cross and Red Crescent movement whose mission is to promote international and regional cooperation and solidarity geared to protecting human lives and health at risk and bringing their lives back to normal.
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 passer-by 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 a relief committee for the war wounded to realize the humanitarian ideal. And the committee was renamed the International Committee of the Red Cross(ICRC) in 1876.
Out of the recognition that such humanitarian activities are necessary not only in wartime but also in peacetime came the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) in 1919.
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 relief and disaster prevention.
The Society has developed into a capable organization through continuous organizational development and capacity building activities with over 100,000 volunteers and more than 250,000 RC youth members.
Now it is actively waging a variety of activities including mitigation structure construction, hygiene promotion and first aid etc. for raising risk response and anti-epidemic awareness and building resilient communities thus contributing to the implementation of the state’s policies and the Society`s long-term plans and attaining the UN sustainable development goals.
