Your Majesty,
Rector Magnificus,
President Letschert,
Mayor, governor, other dignitaries from government, academia and beyond,
Dear students and dear friends of Maastricht University,
It is a great privilege to receive this honorary doctorate on behalf of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) at a time when our shared humanity is both tested and needed.
It is also an honour to stand before you as Maastricht University celebrates its 50th anniversary, and as the first organisation to be awarded an honorary doctorate by this distinguished institution.
The ICRC, the Netherlands and Maastricht share a long history. The Netherlands took part in the 1863 conference that led to the founding of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. As a result, the Netherlands Red Cross Society is among one of the oldest in the world.
In the runup to that conference, Gustave Moynier, who went on to become the president of the ICRC, wrote to Major General Knoop to invite him to the conference.
The Major sent a letter back, in which he wrote: “Rest assured, Sir, that every man of goodwill applauds with all his heart and soul the holy work you are beginning.” That letter is safely stored in our archives.
One year later, the Netherlands was among the original 12 states to sign the first Geneva Convention in August 1864, which made it compulsory for armies to care for wounded soldiers regardless of what side they fought on. The Netherlands was also the fourth country in the world to ratify it.
Today, the ICRC is working with Maastricht University staff to strengthen standards for how humanitarian organisations process, use and protect the personal data of the people we serve.
I share these examples not to give you a history lesson, but to demonstrate how we are connected by a very rich history – one that spans from the very foundations of our work to addressing the challenges of today.
We must now work together – as leaders, academics, humanitarians and citizens – to preserve the lifesaving legacy of those who came before us.
Distinguished guests,
In my three years as the president of the ICRC, I have watched the number of armed conflicts climb year after year. Today, we count about 130. This is more than we recorded a year ago, and twice as many as we did 15 years ago.
The contagion of conflict is spreading, and the red lines that preserve humanity in war are eroding.
States are now preparing for war with a sense of inevitability. Hard-won gains to ban indiscriminate weapons, such as anti-personnel mines, are being reversed in the name of self-defence. States are racing to develop drones, cyber capabilities and autonomous weapons systems.
Algorithms are creating echo chambers that allow dehumanizing narratives to take hold. The law of armed conflict is being twisted to justify killing rather than to prevent it. Destroying the enemy at all cost is being masqueraded as an effective tool for peace.
But judging by what we see in Eastern Europe, the Middle East or the Horn of Africa today, the world cannot afford limitless war – not in number, and not in conduct. Without limits, war ceases to become a tool of last resort. It becomes a permanent condition, undermining the international rules-based order and with it, global stability.
State leaders should not allow the world to slide where might makes right. Because where the foundations of global peace and stability fracture, barbarism replaces the rule of law.
We are all, as politicians, practitioners, researchers, experts or as private citizens, at a moral crossroads: will we allow the barriers that prevent brutality in war to be dismantled, or will we demand that even in war, there are red lines that are never allowed to be crossed?
Everyone will say it is wrong to rape. To torture. To target innocent civilians. To starve children. To destroy hospitals, power plants and water supply.
The Geneva Conventions embody what we all carry in our own internal moral compass. Standing up for the rules of war, quite simply, is standing up for the most basic principles of humanity.
Every day, ICRC staff in conflict zones across the world defend the legal protections afforded to people during war.
In this work, we never take sides, never put humanity on a scale; we speak with all warring parties to advocate for the rights of people affected by war so we can ease suffering across frontlines. Because a human life is a human life with equal rights no matter which side you are on.
Dismissing recognition of the other as deserving the same human dignity would ultimately mean, accepting an end to a rules-based order which makes us all safer. Where there are no rules, no one is safe.
Because war kills. Wars fought without rules shift from wars between combatants to wars against innocent civilians, against those least able to defend themselves.
On the other hand, respect for international humanitarian law saves lives. It brings hope in the darkest of circumstances. Most importantly, it preserves pathways back to peace by affirming that humanity does not end when war begins. There is no lasting peace without upholding the normative space that respects and protects our human dignity.
Today, I share this honorary doctorate with my colleagues across the world and the visionary individuals whose efforts gave us the Geneva Conventions and the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. I share it with millions of young Red Cross and Red Crescent volunteers across the globe – many of them have lost their lives in the last years.
The Geneva Conventions – and the Red Cross – belong to all of us. They are a global public good. They are expressions of a consensus agreed by all states to preserve life, protect dignity and uphold humanity.
By defending them, we defend the very prospects for peace and stability in a world that is today at-risk of being devoured by war.
Thank you.
