International Committee of the Red Cross International Committee of the Red Cross The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is a humanitarian institution based in Geneva, Switzerland, and a three-time Nobel Prize Laureate. State parties (signatories) to the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocols of 1977 (Protocol I, Protocol II) and 2005 have given the ICRC a mandate to protect victims of international and internal armed conflicts. Such victims include war wounded, prisoners, refugees, civilians, and other non-combatants. The ICRC is part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement along with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent
International Committee of the Red Cross interaction and cooperation with the ICRC. In 1997, the ICRC and the IFRC signed the Seville Agreement which further defined the responsibilities of both organizations within the movement. According to the agreement, the Federation is the lead agency of the movement in any emergency situation which does not take place as part of an armed conflict. From its inception in 1930 until 2006, the Magen David Adom organization, the Israeli equivalent to the Red Cross, was not accepted as part of the Federation, as it used the Star of David, which the ICRC refused to recognize as an acceptable symbol.