ICRC staff are men and women whose origins, nationalities and life stories are extremely diverse. All are motivated by a shared desire to serve a common ideal. It is thanks to this diversity that the ICRC can deploy all the facets of its operations, for which it needs specific competencies.

More than 90 nationalities are represented among the employees hired locally by ICRC delegations in the field. They bring to the ICRC their skills and their intimate knowledge of the environment and the local culture. They enable the ICRC to root its activities more firml in the reality of a country.

Policy of openness

In the past ten years, ICRC expatriate staff have become increasingly diverse as a result of the application of a policy of "internationalization".

Until the early 1990s, ICRC expatriate staff were exclusively Swiss, for historical reasons relating to Switzerland's leading role in the founding of the Red Cross Movement. That policy also met the ICRC's need to be perceived as an organization whose vocation was strictly humanitarian in nature in a world that was deeply divided politically and ideologically.

Switzerland's policy of neutrality at that time enabled ICRC Swiss staff to earn the confidence of all. The ICRC was thus more easily able to carry out its protection and assistance activities for the victims, in most contexts of war and violence.

Developments in international relations have lessened the need for exclusively Swiss staff. The ICRC has therefore gradually developed a policy of openness in the recruitment of expatriate personnel.

In 2003, 49% of newly hired delegates were not Swiss. Among expatriate staff, 52% are Swiss and 48% come from 94 other countries.

Winning acceptance

The fact that its personnel is becoming increasingly diverse has not done away with the need for the ICRC to be accepted in the fraught environments in which it acts. Personnel bearing certain passports cannot be assigned to certain conflict situations. For political reasons, certain nationalities may be negatively perceived by the authorities of a State or the leaders of an armed movement.

If the ICRC wants to be effective, it must make allowances for those realities in its recruitment, assignment and long-term human resources management policies. It must also ensure the security of its staff members and guarantee the independence of its activities.