Get QuoteDark Inspirational Quotes App

" The young, the old, women, the disabled, the sick and the wounded are entitled to protection under international law. Too often, the ICRC's calls for those laws to be respected are ignored. "

Related Quotes:

" Humanitarian assistance, once conceived as a short-term relief effort, is increasingly the only substitute for long-term development work in protracted armed conflicts. "

Peter Maurer

Only

Effort

Development

" You treat detainees humanely because you know the other side will also treat detainees humanely. "

" We still have a strong commitment to our original mission, which is to protect and assist people who are suffering from the impact of violence, but the violence has changed its character, format, and pattern so that we are now responding year after year. "

" Local businesses and communities must be included from the very start in developing solutions to fragility, violence, and conflict. "

" If you back out of a convention... you can't dodge your obligation. Torture is still not acceptable. "

" Where you are born, your parent's beliefs, or your ethnic background should not make you a target. "

" The humanitarian ecosystem is diverse - not only is there a variety of traditional humanitarian actors, but the system should also embrace an increasing diversity of private sector actors. "

" The ICRC did not see Nazi Germany for what it was. Instead, the organization maintained the illusion that the Third Reich was a 'regular partner,' a state that occasionally violates laws, not unlike any army during World War II, occasionally using illegal means and methods of warfare. "

" The International Committee of the Red Cross visits roughly half a million detainees in nearly 100 countries each year. It's our job to try to prevent and put an end to torture and ill-treatment. "

" We need to continue to modernise current humanitarian work while at the same time drive a more systemic shift in how we envision the operation and financing of humanitarian solutions. "

Peter Maurer

Need

Drive

" You can't expect humanitarian and development agencies to rebuild Syria. There is not enough money. There is not enough capacity. There are not enough skills. "

" The principal cause of suffering during humanitarian crises is insufficient respect of applicable rules of international humanitarian law. "

" Businesses operating in fragile or conflict-affected environments bear a responsibility to, at the very minimum, do no harm and avoid fuelling conflict or reinforcing fragility. "

" Every day, we hear of civilians being killed and wounded in violation of the basic rules of international humanitarian law and with total impunity. Instability is spreading. Suffering is growing. No country can remain untouched. "

" I think we are challenged in how we define humanitarian action today and how we relate to long-term needs. We are also confronted with legitimate expectations from the people who want us to respond far more thoroughly to their basic pleas than we would have done in a much more contained form of conflict. "

" It is very clear from the text of the Geneva Conventions that families have the right to know about the whereabouts of their missing and that belligerents have a duty to inform families if they have indication and if they are detaining people. "

" We believe that settlement expansion policies pursued in recent decades by successive Israeli governments have facilitated the process of de-facto annexation. It has complicated the dialogue between the different communities. "

" As responsible politicians, you have to manage migration. "

" When millions of kids are missing out on school, delivering educational services becomes an issue that concerns the humanitarian system. "

" Concrete steps are needed to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in military plans, doctrines, and policies. "

" The sad fact is that horrendous human conflict is nothing new. "

" The disconnect between what people think and what the political leaders are actually doing is something that we really need to start raising. "

" We must understand the factors that cause fragility, violence, and conflict in order to develop solutions that will meaningfully reduce instability at its roots rather than merely addressing the symptoms. "

" People living through armed conflicts need infrastructure and services which will last, and the last thing on their mind is which budget line applies. "

" Until the last nuclear weapon is eliminated, more must also be done to reduce the risk of a detonation. Nuclear-armed states should reduce the number of warheads on high alert and be clearer about the actions they are taking to prevent accidents. "

Peter Maurer

Last

Risk

" Urbanisation, poverty, youth unemployment are leading to violence-prone cities. "

" Humanitarian action cannot be held hostage to political ends. "

" The relatively unpredictable flow of funds to humanitarian organizations, and the bureaucratic strings often attached to them, can have a highly negative impact on an organization's ability to plan and execute programmes effectively. We need to be able to rely on predictable income flows to plan sustainable programmes. "

" Not enough countries, not enough armies, not enough armed groups are abiding by the fundamental human values enshrined in the Geneva Conventions. "

" Attacks on health facilities, health workers, ambulances, is now a reality that we observe on the ground - not on a monthly but on a daily or weekly scale in most of the conflicts in which we are engaged. "