ICRC Activities in the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries: Annual Review 2023
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has an exclusively humanitarian mission to protect the lives and dignity of people affected by armed conflict and other violence, often working closely with other members of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. The organization also endeavours to prevent suffering by promoting and strengthening humanitarian law and universal humanitarian principles.
In the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, the ICRC works to promote and ensure respect for the rules of war and facilitates its operations worldwide through dialogue with government, civil society, and military and diplomatic officials. It works in places of detention, helps determine what happened to missing people, reunites families separated by armed conflict and migration, and works closely with the National Red Crescent Societies of Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and with other partner organizations.
The ICRC first established a presence in the GCC countries in Kuwait during the 1990–1991 Gulf War, with support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The organization signed country host agreements with the ministries of foreign affairs of the UAE and Qatar in In July 2022 and March 2023 respectively. The ICRC has also maintained a presence in Oman since 2015, and in Saudi Arabia since 2017, with activities across all six GCC countries. This report provides an overview of the ICRC’s activities in the region in 2023, as well as its key achievements.