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Henri Dunant
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"There is more than a century of tradition behind the Red Cross emblem as a symbol of humanitarian protection."
In June 1859, Henri Dunant visited the battlefields of Solferino in Italy. When he arrived, he found battlefields strewn with thousands of wounded and dying victims with no nurses or doctors to care for them. He organized a group to assist him in a primitive rescue operation. This mission was the first in what was to become the Red Cross movement. As a result of Dunant's trip, he wrote a book on his experiences and subsequently it was recommended that medical personnel be authorized to assist the wounded in the battlefields of war torn countries and that an emblem be used to protect them. It was also recommended that governments sign treaties protecting these workers and that national volunteer societies be formed to carry out this mission.
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While Dunant's vision was spreading in Europe, the civil war was raging in the United States. Clara Barton went to the battlefield to help care for the wounded. After the war, she went to Europe where she learned of the Red Cross Movement. Upon returning home, she worked to persuade the government to sign the Geneva Conventions.
In 1863 an international conference met in Geneva to try and find means of remedying the ineffectiveness of the care of the wounded on battlefields. One of the recommendations called for volunteer medical personnel of all countries to wear an easily recognized sign: a white armlet with a red cross, sometimes referred to as the "Geneva Cross".
An Inertnaional Treaty known as The Geneva Convention was signed on August 22, 1864, by the representatives of twelve countries. It established the fundamental principle that "wounded or sick combatants, to whatever nation they may belong, shall be collected and cared for." It adopted the Red Cross emblem as the international symbol to identify personnel, material and facilities used to care for the sick and wounded in times of armed conflict. By the terms of the treaty, persons and facilities bearing the symbol are protected from attack.
On May 21, 1881, Barton founded the American Association of the Red Cross. Later, the first chapter was established in Dansville, NY. The next year, the US Senate ratified the Geneva Conventions, allowing America to become the 32nd nation to support the international treaty. In 1900, following years of volunteer service by Barton, the US Congress granted the American Red Cross a charter, making the volunteer organization responsible for providing services to members of the US Armed Forces and relief to disaster victims at home and abroad.
Over the years the protection of the original Geneva Convention has been extended beyond the battlefield to include the shipwrecked, the prisoners of war, and the civilian populations affected by armed conflict.
Today, the International Federation of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent Societies has adopted as its emblem the red cross and red crescent on a white ground
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