On November 23, the Valdai Club held a panel discussion with Peter Maurer, President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, titled “Humanism Under Attack: What Rules Does a ‘Hybrid War’ Have?”
The main challenges currently facing the International Committee of the Red Cross are the improvement of weapons, fragmentation of society and the urbanization of conflict, Peter Maurer said. These factors not only directly threaten the civilian population, but also lead to the destruction of entire state systems intended to protect society.
At the same time, despite the large number of existing protracted conflicts, the international situation is made worse by the advent of hybrid conflicts that exacerbate existing confrontations. The price of current global conflict is over 10 percent of global GDP, Maurer said.
Currently, the main instrument of humanitarian organizations is the international humanitarian law. Peter Maurer stressed that the international humanitarian law and the international human rights law are the two sets of principles and rules with their own specifics. Because they are related, it is important for the International Committee of the Red Cross and other humanitarian organizations to be able to distinguish between them in order to improve performance. The international humanitarian law is more effective in conflict.
Peter Maurer called the creation of a platform for the discussion of international humanitarian agenda one of the key objectives of the International Committee of the Red Cross. Negotiations are underway about the possibility of its creation. One of the discussion participants, head of the Russian humanitarian mission Yevgeny Primakov, proposed to organize this platform in Moscow, which Maurer expressed interest in.
Commenting on Peter Maurer’s speech, Valdai Club Programme Director Andrei Sushentsov noted that during the 2016 Annual Meeting of the Club, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov praised the work of the International Committee of the Red Cross, calling it a role model for other humanitarian organizations. According to Sushentsov, this may have received a negative reaction in the Western community. Peter Maurer refuted this assumption, stating that the hallmark of any humanitarian organizations is primarily the results of its real activity to resolve humanitarian problems and the absence of a political component in the work. For the International Committee of the Red Cross, the recognition of each country signatory to the Geneva Convention is extremely important.
Responding to a question by Alexander Gorelik, Director of the UN Information Center in Russia (1999-2015), Maurer added that the task of the committee is to establish dialogue and bring warring parties to a consensus, which is impossible in the absence of confidence on the part of each player in the international arena. The biggest challenge for any humanitarian organization is to maintain neutrality in respect to all parties to the conflict.
Peter Maurer said he is "proud of the International Committee of the Red Cross’ actions in Eastern Ukraine" because the organization was able to reach out to both parties to the conflict, without taking a political position.
