Extract from ICRC special report: assistance

The Emergency items catalogue lists all the items used in Red Cross Red Crescent relief work, and details the exact product specification for each item. It is aimed at logistics personnel and suppliers.

The Assistance Division provides field operations with strategic support and professional expertise in three areas of activity – health services, economic security and water and habitat. These activities encompass forensic science and weapon contamination.

2009-Various places

Buner IDP camp in north-west Pakistan is a temporary home to 25,000 people displaced by fighting. The ICRC and the Pakistan Red Crescent were recently able to distribute a very welcome donation of food from the Kuwait Red Crescent Society.

As Orthodox Christmas approaches in Central and Eastern Europe, many displaced and isolated families affected by the armed conflict between Russia and Georgia five months ago remain in need of help. For elderly people, like 60-year-old Nunu Doliashvili, the holiday season would have been very bleak indeed, were it not for some much-needed assistance from ICRC.

Hundreds of thousands of Afghans in the north of the country may have to leave their homes this winter because of drought, insecurity and rising food prices. The ICRC and the Afghan Red Crescent Society (ARCS) have launched a major food distribution operation for 280,000 people in the provinces of Kunduz, Balkh, Faryab and Badghis, in northern and north-western Afghanistan. A report from Wahab Sifil and Zalmai of the ICRC’s Kabul delegation and Mazar sub-delegation.

Fighting between government forces and the armed opposition continues in the region bordering Afghanistan. Civilians are paying a heavy price. The ICRC’s Sitara Jabeen reports on the cultural and social challenges facing displaced people on the Pakistani/Afghan border.

Clashes between the Mamprusi and Kusasi tribes in the northern Ghanaian town of Bawku have left many people in fear of their lives and separated from their livelihoods. The Red Cross has stepped in to help them through these trying times.

How do humanitarian workers in a country emerging from war, and doctors practising medicine in Geneva, experience the transition from an acute to a chronic problem – from saving lives to supporting patients suffering from a long-term illness? This was the subject debated by doctors, patients and ICRC managers in Zinal, Switzerland, in March 2008. The author of this text is a political adviser to the International Committee of the Red Cross, responsible for the analysis of future trends. The text reflects the author's opinions only and does not necessarily correspond to the views of the ICRC.

About 1,500 people remain at the police station camp for the displaced in Kakamega. Many of them own small businesses in the town and are reluctant to abandon their property. Red Cross counsellors are providing much-needed support to those who are at a loss as to where to go from here. Bernard Barrett reports.

With the political situation in Kenya still tense, the humanitarian consequences of the post-election violence persist and the people affected remain in need of ongoing support. The Kenya Red Cross and the ICRC are preparing to help for the long term.

The violence in Kenya has killed hundreds of people and forced an estimated quarter of a million from their homes in the Rift Valley region. Many have gathered at public sites where they are surviving on hand-outs. The ICRC's Anne Mucheke reports.

Three consecutive seasons of flooding have left farming villages in the Middle Shebelle region of Somalia with no crops. The ICRC continues to step in with emergency aid to bolster coping mechanisms as the next round of floods looms.

The ICRC is continuing to deliver seeds and essential assistance items to hundreds of thousands of people uprooted by conflict in northern Uganda. Ugandan journalist Denis Ocwich reports on a delivery of supplies to a remote camp for displaced persons.

When people are wounded or fall sick during armed conflict and internal violence, health workers are there to help, but they don't take sides.

Through the words of those who have borne the brunt of Afghanistan's devastating conflicts, this film looks back on 20 years of uninterrupted ICRC presence in the country. Both beneficiaries and local staff describe the profound impact the ICRC's dedicated work has had on their lives and on those of their fellow countrymen from all ethnic and religious backgrounds.

The Cité-Soleil shantytown in Port-au-Prince has been the scene of deadly clashes between armed groups and UN forces. Local people live in abject poverty against a backdrop of violence, without even basic services to make their lives more bearable. Together, the ICRC and the Haitian Red Cross are providing an ambulance service for the sick and wounded, repairing water points and seeking to give some hope again to the people of Cité-Soleil.

The month-long conflict that raged between Hezbollah and Israel brought the Lebanese summer to a violent end. Once again, civilians paid the highest price. Under the falling bombs, ICRC and Lebanese Red Cross aid workers struggled to evacuate the wounded and get food and water to the survivors. Amid the devastation and the unexploded bombs left behind by the conflict, can life ever return to normal?

ICRC micro-economic initiatives are tailored to individual beneficiaries and designed in close consultation with them. This handbook features lessons that have been learned from previous micro-economic initiatives, describes best practices and proposes ways to meet inherent challenges. Since 2001, the ICRC has launched micro-economic initiatives in over a dozen countries worldwide, from the Balkans to Afghanistan to DR Congo.

This publication looks at key water and sanitation issues in conflict-affected countries where the ICRC works. It analyses challenges from the point of view of operational practice, which has developed and become more professional as the years have gone by.

This manual is an important tool for all humanitarian workers involved in the field of nutrition. In addition to presenting an in-depth explanation of human nutrition, nutrition crisis and nutritional programmes within humanitarian intervention, the manual highlights the importance of maintaining a better understanding of the broader impact of war on all aspects of daily life. It argues that food is not just a means for survival but that it is a basic right for those caught up in the conflict, as defined in international humanitarian law.

The ICRC's work to promote economic security is intended to ensure that households and communities can cover their unavoidable expenditures and maintain or restore sustainable livelihoods.

A practical manual presenting the specific knowledge, skills and practices that First Aiders should have to act safely and effectively when caring for people caught up in armed conflicts and other situations of violence, such as internal disturbances and tensions.

The kit describes those activities carried out by the ICRC to restore family links, provide care and protect unaccompanied children and child soldiers, among others. As both a work tool and a source of information, it covers the legal protection of children in situations of armed conflict and contains a summary of those provisions of international humanitarian law that apply specifically to children.
(All documents in pdf format)

Recent catastrophes, and predictions of an increasing potential for more, have stimulated thinking about the best policy responses to these threats. This article explores how security concepts influence catastrophe governance. It considers how globalization affects thinking about catastrophes, describes ways in which catastrophes have been conceptualized as governance challenges and explains how health and humanitarian assistance experienced “securitization” in the post-Cold War period.

It is uncertain who will assist the victims of use of nuclear, radiological, biological or chemical weapons if an international response is required and how this assistance can be provided without undue risk to those providing it. The use of such weapons presents a variety of risks and the political and security implications are serious and complex. This article shows the difficulties inherent in assisting the victims of use of nuclear, radiological, biological and chemical weapons.

Conference of the Luxemburg Group - 24-25 May 2004
Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva

Adopted by the Assembly of the International Committee of the Red Cross on 29 April 2004 - Public version

When armed conflict breaks out, hospitals and health workers are sometimes attacked, ambulances can be prevented from reaching the wounded and a lack of basic services, like water and electricity, can bring surgical procedures grinding to a halt. The ICRC’s chief war surgeon, Marco Baldan, explains why health care must be better respected and protected in situations of armed violence.

In many conflicts, disease kills more civilians than bullets. Reason enough for the ICRC to call on governments to ensure safe water and decent sanitation for civilians in conflict zones. An interview with Robert Mardini, head of the ICRC’s water and habitat unit, on the occasion of the Fifth World Water Forum in Istanbul, Turkey.

Drought, floods and the effects of 18 years of armed violence and lawlessness have driven much of the Somali population into destitution. Mathias Frese has been working in Somalia for many years as the ICRC's coordinator for relief activities and livelihood support.

As the worldwide food crisis deepens, the ICRC's Alain Mourey underlines the need to analyse the root causes, which can vary depending on the region. The author of the ICRC’s nutrition manual explains why it is not enough merely to supply the needy with food rations.

Somalia is facing its worst crisis in a decade, with drought, fighting and spiralling food prices having a devastating effect on the population. Pascal Hundt, the ICRC's outgoing head of delegation in Somalia, describes the complexities of the enduring conflict, and the ICRC's role in helping the Somali people cope with a multitude of hardships.

As the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement prepares to take action in the face of the unprecedented food crisis. the head of the ICRC's Economic Security Unit, Barbara Boyle Saidi, looks at the underlying causes of the problem and the strategies needed to address it.

The situation in Somalia is growing steadily worse, with increasing violence having caused a mass exodus from Mogadishu. Daniel Gagnon, the ICRC's economic security delegate in Somalia, describes the plight of the beleaguered Somali people, and what the ICRC is doing to help.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is deeply concerned about the worsening humanitarian situation in Afghanistan. As armed hostilities spread and insecurity grows, more and more people are being forced to flee their homes. It is also becoming increasingly difficult for the ICRC to access displaced people throughout the country. In addition, freezing temperatures and blizzards have affected several areas, killing hundreds. Interview with Franz Rauchenstein, ICRC deputy head of delegation in Afghanistan.

United Nations, General Assembly, 63rd session, Plenary meeting, item 65a of the agenda, statement by Ms Christine Beerli, Vice-President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, New York, 11 Novembre 2008

United Nations, General Assembly, 62nd session, Plenary, item 71 of the agenda, Statement by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), New York, 19 Novembre 2007

United Nations, General Assembly 50th session (1995), Plenary Meeting, Agenda item 20. Statement by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Tuesday, 28 November 1995

Photos illustrating ICRC activities around the world in 2008. The media is welcome to use these images, which can be downloaded at high resolution.

It is estimated that the decade-long conflict in Uganda has forced over 1.7 million people from their homes into camps for the displaced. In February-March 2007, the ICRC distributed substantial aid to some 560,000 displaced people currently living in camps, returning to their homes or resettling after years of displacement.

Somalis living along the Shabele and Juba rivers, who have already suffered from a dreadful drought and whose very existence is jeopardized by the ongoing armed violence, now have to contend with the worst floods the country has experienced in recent years.

Built in the 1960s to house a few thousand workers, Cité-Soleil is now one of the largest shantytowns in the northern hemisphere and a microcosm of all the ills that beset Haitian society: endemic unemployment, illiteracy, the collapse of public services, insalubrity, crime and violence.

The ICRC helps the people most severely affected by the conflict in Casamance to return to a normal life. Access to health care and safe drinking water are priorities.

A fragile peace is emerging in Casamance, after more than 20 years of conflict. Tens of thousands of people, driven from their villages by the fighting have now returned. The ICRC, with the support of the Senegalese Red Cross, is assisting in the recovery by improving water supply and sanitation in the devastated province – Article published in the Red Cross Red Crescent Magazine, No 2, 2005

In this document the ICRC describes its projected activities for 2007, including its plans to meet the humanitarian needs of those affected by the violence in Chechnya.

In the first days of the emergency, hundreds of tonnes of food, blankets and sanitary supplies were flown into the Georgian capital, Tbilisi. During his 3 day visit to Georgia and the Russian Federation, ICRC President Jacob Kellenberger saw the difficult conditions for himself, and met some of the thousands of people displaced by fighting and in urgent need of assistance.