section_path: History of the emblems/Red Cross
section_name: Red Cross
paragraph_text: Red Cross
  
  The Red Cross emblem was officially approved in Geneva in 1863.
  
  The Red Cross flag is not to be confused with the Saint George's Cross depicted on the flags of England, Barcelona, Georgia, Freiburg im Breisgau, and several other places. In order to avoid this confusion the protected symbol is sometimes referred to as the "Greek Red Cross"; that term is also used in United States law to describe the Red Cross. The red cross of the Saint George cross extends to the edge of the flag, whereas the red cross on the Red Cross flag does not.
  
  The Red Cross flag is the colour-switched version of the Flag of Switzerland, in recognition of "the pioneering work of Swiss citizens in establishing internationally recognized standards for the protection of wounded combatants and military medical facilities". In 1906, to put an end to the argument of the Ottoman Empire that the flag took its roots from Christianity, it was decided officially to promote the idea that the Red Cross flag had been formed by reversing the federal colours of Switzerland, although no written evidence of this origin had ever been found.
  
  The 1899 convention signed at the Hague extended the use of the Red Cross flag to naval ensigns, requiring that "all hospital ships shall make themselves known by hoisting, together with their national flag, the white flag with a red cross provided by the Geneva Convention".