INTERNATIONAL RED CROSS MOVEMENT: HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Abstract

The article describes the process of formation of the International Movement of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, and defines the limits of authority of the International Committee of the Red Cross, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and the Red Cross Society of Ukraine. On the basis of the study of international and Ukrainian normative legal acts, the main forms of cooperation of our state with the specified international movement in the conditions of the military conflict in the east of Ukraine are determined. Particular attention is paid to the International Committee of the Red Cross, which provides financial, material, psychological and educational assistance to both the population and the bodies of state executive power and local self-government bodies of Ukraine.The importance of the need to provide assistance to the wounded was realized already at the early stages of the development of human civilization. The article examines the history of the emergence and development of international humanitarian law («laws and customs of war»). However, the author notes that decisive steps were taken here precisely in the 19th century, as the rapid progress in the development of weapons and military art led to a sharp increase in the number of victims of hostilities. In this connection, considerable attention is paid to the figure of Swiss businessman and public figure Henri Dunant. The article notes that it was the activity of the latter that became the basis for the adoption of the famous Geneva Convention (1864) «On the Improvement of the Fate of Wounded and Sick Soldiers in Land War».Based on the conceptual achievements of modern historiography and using a wide range of diverse sources, the author has analyzed historical background of the Ukrainian Red Cross movement, its ideological principles of operation and main directions of development.