The International Committee of the Red Cross

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), logo at right, was founded in 1863 and has been striving “to ensure protection and assistance for victims of armed conflict and strife”. [1] This organization of five members met for the first time in Geneva, Switzerland during February of 1863. Though there weren’t many members at the time, they were able to get several governments to agree on and adopt the first of the Geneva Conventions in 1864, only a year after the organization’s inception. The Geneva Conventions protect people who are no longer participating in a conflict or war, such as people who have become wounded or are prisoners of war. The Red Cross is also famous for providing medical attention and other forms of aid to those in need. This includes and is not limited to, administering  immunizations, protecting innocent civilians, and visiting prisoners of war. Since its inception, the ICRC has dramatically expanded and is now present in roughly 80 countries and has around 11,000 staff members. The video above shows some of the things that ICRC volunteers do in Rwanda today. (Note: The video ends after 43 seconds)

Phillippe Gaillard

In addition to providing medical care the ICRC can become involved in the creation of peace treaties, and one of the events leading to the Rwandan genocide involved one such peace treaty. At the beginning  of July of 1993 Phillippe Gaillard, portrait at left, who headed the ICRC mission in Rwanda throughout the genocide, was involved in a peace treaty in order to quell some of the fighting, which involved guerrilla warfare and the civil war going on in Rwanda. Phillippe Gaillard said that never read the peace treaty he was proposing because the president of the MRND, a  French political party, had told him that, "In Africa, peace agreements are usually toilet papers."[2] The Rwandan genocide which shortly followed the peace treaty clearly proved this statement to be correct. Phillippe Gallard stated that he thought the genocide may have even been a response to the peace treaty that Rwandans felt they had been forced to sign as a result of pressuring from the international community. 

Map of Rwanda and a view of neighboring countries   

Rwanda is a country with very little land, which is located in central Africa, but is home to more than 11 million people today. [2] The map on the right shows Rwanda, its major cities, and its bordering countries. Tragically, The nation of Rwanda experienced a horrific genocide in 1994 which, though it lasted for only 100 days, killed close to one million people. The cause of Rwanda's genocide probably lies in its colonial history. When Rwanda was a colony of Belgium the Belgian leaders gave the Tutsis, who were a minority in Rwanda, preferential treatment because their appearance was similar to that of a European. This angered the Hutus, who were the "group" in majority. Though it is clear that there were tensions between the Hutu and the Tutsi people violence was unusual and anything even resembling a genocide was extremely unlikely to occur. The rule of the Belgians changed this, the Belgians knew that one of the surest ways for them to maintain power was for them to exploit the bad history between the Tutsi and Hutu people so that both of these groups would greatly prefer the rule of the Belgians to the rule of the other group. Many people who were involved in the Rwandan genocide believe that this increased animosity was the one of the biggest, if not the biggest cause of the Rwandan genocide.

Young victims of the Rwandan genocide

On April 6, 1994 the Rwandan genocide, one of the most horrific genocides the world has ever seen, began almost immediately following the Rwandan president's plane being shot down. Sadly as the genocide became worse and worse more and more countries began to turn away from the persecuted Tutsi people of Rwanda merely because the countries would have nothing material to gain by helping them. These countries, with the United States among them, claimed they were not able to get troops into Rwanda and yet they were able to airlift out American civilians beginning on the ninth of April in 1994, just three days after the Rwandan president's plane was shot down. Unfortunately horrific scenes like the one pictured above were not uncommon during the genocide and when leaders of the world visited Rwanda after the genocide had ended it would not have been unusual for them to find dead bodies piled atop one another.

The Rwandan genocide was also one of the fastest moving genocides ever. It has been estimated that one the first day of the genocide alone 8,000 people were killed and at the end of the genocide over 800,000 Tutsi people were killed in as little as 100 days. [3] Even with this incredibly large death toll, Belgium and the United States both completely pulled out all of their soldiers from the United Nations' forces. Even the U.N. tells the head of their peacekeeping force in Rwanda, General Romeo Dallaire, to avoid armed conflict and not intervene. Though many countries and the United Nations was turning away from the Tutsis and denying that a genocide was even occurring the ICRC continued to provide aid to Rwandans who needed it. In addition to providing medical care and protection the Red Cross gave the Tutsis something even more important, hope. One Tutsi woman who was interviewed about her experience during the genocide had this to say:

A young child surrounded by dead victims of the genocide

“I was wearing my Red Cross T-shirt in the hope that these people would spare me. I hoped that they would respect that symbol of protection and humanity known across the world.” [4]

This woman was rescued from certain death at the hands of Hutus two days after she had been captured. 

The ICRC was one of the only groups that remained in Rwanda as many other well known and wealthy countries and organizations pretended to be ignorant of the inhumane crimes that were being committed in Rwanda was it was so well covered by the media that the majority of the general public was well aware of the tragic situation in Rwanda. Juan Martinez of the ICRC said this about the situation in Rwanda during the genocide," The gruesome statistics can never reflect the full horror of what this country and its people endured during those 100 days".[5] Many children were left orphaned as a result of the genocide like the one pictured above.


The ICRC worked tirelessly to ensure the safety of all Rwandans and to aid those who were hurt. Philippe Gaillard, leader of the ICRC mission in Rwanda was able to help the ICRC save over 65,000[7] lives while working throughout the Rwandan genocide despite his life being threatened repeatedly. He also worked to help raise awareness of the genocide in hopes that this would make other countries feel a need to help the Rwandans. Perhaps the most important thing that the ICRC was able to do for the persecuted Tutsis, however, was to give them hope. 

Rwandan ICRC volunteers

[1] "History of the ICRC,"last modified 11 February 2010, http://www.icrc.org/eng/who-we-are/history/overview-section-history-icrc.htm.

[2] "Interview: Philippe Gaillard," last modified 1 April 2004, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/ghosts /interviews/gaillard.html.

[3] "Africa - Rwanda," last modified 25 April, 2011, https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/rw.html.

[4] "Timeline: Ghosts of Rwanda,"last modified 1 April 2004, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/ghosts/etc/crontext.html.

[5] "Surviving Rwanda's Genocide," last modified 14 April 2004, http://www.ifrc.org/en/news-and-media/news-stories/africa/rwanda/surviving-rwandas-genocide/.

[6] "Rwanda 1994: a "drop of humanity in an ocean of horror," last modified 4 January 2004, http://www.icrc.org/eng/resources/documents/misc/5xfmjg.htm

[7] "Rwandan Genocide: Acts of Rescue," http://www.vhec.org/images/pdfs/rwanda.pdf

Picture Credits:

ICRC Logo:
http://www.bar-kulan.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/ICRC-LOGO.jpg

Philippe Gaillard Portrait:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/ghosts/art/gaillardp.jpg

Rwanda Map:

http://www.glogster.com/media/5/33/30/63/33306322.jpg

Rwandan Genocide Victim Picture:

http://globalsolutions.org/files/public/images/Rwandan-Genocide.jpg

Rwandan Genocide Victim Picture 2:
http://www.unachicago.org/rwanda/rwanda1.jpg

Rwandan Red Cross Volunteers
http://sigriirwanda.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/mg_2440.jpg