The Digital Emblem: Making humanitarian protection visible in cyberspace
As a key event of the World Internet Conference Wuzhen Summit, the “Release and Presentation of Outstanding Cases of Jointly Building a Community with a Shared Future in Cyberspace” was held on the afternoon of 2 November in Wuzhen, Zhejiang Province. The Digital Emblem Project, led by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), was selected as one of the outstanding cases. At the event, Patrick Youssef, Personal Envoy of the ICRC President to China and Head of the ICRC Regional Delegation for East Asia, introduced the origins and significance of the Digital Emblem Project.
Today, hospitals depend on networks, servers and data to diagnose patients, operate equipment and deliver care. Humanitarian organizations, like the International Committee of the Red Cross, or ICRC, and other members of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, depend on digital systems to protect and assist people in armed conflict or in natural disasters.
The cruel reality is that these systems and other essential services can be disrupted, manipulated, and attacked, both physically and in cyberspace. This can put people in need in grave danger.
In the physical world, the Red Cross, Red Crescent and Red Crystal emblems identify protected medical and humanitarian personnel, facilities and transports. They signal that these persons and objects must be respected and protected under international humanitarian law.
Now we face a new challenge: how can humanitarian protections in the physical world be reflected in cyberspace?
This is precisely the challenge that the Digital Emblem Project, an initiative led by the ICRC, seeks to address.
The objective of the Digital Emblem Project is to design and operationalize a machine-readable digital signal that enables protected humanitarian and medical organizations to identify themselves in cyberspace in a standardized way.
In simple terms, it seeks to make a key humanitarian protection visible in cyberspace.
This requires cooperation across sectors, including humanitarian organizations, governments, technical communities, healthcare institutions and technology companies.
A major milestone was reached at the 34th International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent in 2024, where States adopted a resolution encouraging the ICRC to continue its work related to the Digital Emblem.
Technical work is being undertaken at the Internet Engineering Task Force, with complementary work at the International Telecommunication Union. The initiative has also been discussed in several notable international fora, including the Internet Governance Forum and the World Summit on the Information Society, and has received support from more than 160 technology companies.
In July, the project moved from developing its concept and technical foundations toward operational practice and real-world adoption.
Ultimately, the ambition is clear: to help extend established humanitarian protections into cyberspace, and to contribute to a digital environment that is more trusted, resilient, and human-centred.
Thank you.
