For some decades now, the International Committee of the Red Cross has periodically undertaken the difficult task of reassessing its policy in respect of situations of internal violence. Since 1872, when it made its first offer of services to the parties to a non-international armed conflict, and 1918, when it carried out its first visit to security detainees, the ICRC has accumulated a wealth of experience. During that time it has gradually extended its mandate to cover situations in which human suffering called for action on its part which it would not have contemplated a few years previously.

Furthermore, some guidelines adopted by the ICRC to define a framework for its action have proven too restrictive. For instance, going beyond non-international armed conflict and internal disturbances, the ICRC had defined, on the basis of relatively precise criteria, the situations of internal tension in which it considered itself competent to intervene. In practice, however, the ICRC has sometimes felt the need to undertake or pursue humanitarian action even outside the strict framework of internal tension. Indeed, its right of initiative does not hinge on the emergence of a given situation in a country, but rather on the need for action taken by a specifically neutral and independent organization.