Henry Dunant and the Red Cross
Henri Dunant (Geneva 1828 – Heiden 1910) and the Red Cross are forever connected. In 1859 he witnessed the horrible scenes at the battlefield of Solferino (in the northern part of Italy), where the French armies, together with the Italians, fought the Austrians in one of the bloodiest battles of the nineteenth century. Haunted by the spectre of wounded and dying soldiers left at their miserable fate, he published in 1862 his now famous book Un souvenir de Solferino (A memory of Solferino). The book contains not only a description of the battlefield, but also an appeal to the nations of the world to form relief societies to provide care for the wartime wounded. As a result of his relentless humanitarian actions the Geneva Society for Public Welfare appointed a commission of five to examine the possiblities of putting his plan into action. Dunant and three others were appointed, among them General Guillaume Henri Dufour, a Swiss general (1817-1875), who already in 1847 in his campaigns during the Swiss cantonal war ordered his soldiers to spare the wounded, the prisoners and defenseless.
This committee eventually founded the Red Cross and in 1864 twelve nations signed an international treaty known as the Geneva Convention, agreeing to guarantee neutrality to sanitary personnel, to expedite supplies for their use, and to adopt a special identifying emblem- a red cross on a field of white.
Henri Dunant received the first Nobel Prize for Peace in 1901. He was co-winner with French economist Frédéric Passy.
The Peace Palace Library has an extensive collection of books, articles and documents relating to the Red Cross. It shows the progressive development of the idea of Dunant into a truly international organisation whose efforts in war and peace are of enormous importance throughout the world. The Red Cross provides relief for people in need and in distress. Its emblem brings hope to everyone, without discrimination.
Through the memories of Henri Dunant, the first conference proceedings, the Geneva Conventions of 1949, the 1977 Protocols, the publications of the Henri Dunant Institute in Geneva, and of course the complete set of the Revue internationale de la Croix-Rouge, starting in 1919, the library collection offers access to everyone interested in humanitarian law.