World Red Cross Day 2023: Theme, historical significance, principles & all you need to know

World Red Cross Day 2023: World Red Cross Day, also known as Red Crescent Day is celebrated annually to remember and appreciate the principles of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. It is celebrated every year on May 8, which is the birth anniversary of Jean-Henry Dunant, the founder of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Dunant was born in 1828 and conferred the first Nobel Peace Prize.

Each year the day is celebrated with a theme focusing on a particular subject. During Covid-19, in 2020, the theme was #Keepclapping, to appreciate the efforts of all frontline workers. Likewise, #Unstoppable and #BeHumankind were the themes of World Red Cross Day in 2021 and 2022 respectively.

World Red Cross Day: Theme

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This year’s theme of World Red Cross Day is ‘Everything we do comes #fromtheheart’. The theme celebrates the people in our communities, “the person next door”, who often are the first ones to step up and support those in need around them. They could be anyone, someone at work, a neighbourhood business owner, a Red Cross or Red Crescent community volunteer, someone at the gym, shop or market, or just someone living close by.

In whichever way they support us, they do it with love and #fromtheheart.

What was the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement?

The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement was a humanitarian movement with about 97 million volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health and to ensure respect for all human beings. Within it, there were three separate organisations that are legally independent from each other but are united within the movement through common basic principles, objectives, symbols, statutes, and governing organisations.

World Red Cross Day: History and origin

The idea for an annual day of celebration that would also contribute to peace was introduced just after World War I. This initiative came to be known as the ‘Red Cross Truce’ and was studied by an International Commission established by the 14th International Conference of the Red Cross.

Only after World War II, in 1946, the Tokyo proposal was studied by the League of Red Cross Societies (LRCS), renamed the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) in 1991.

Two years later, having considered the principles of the truce and its applicability across different regions of the world, the proposal of an annual International Red Cross Day was adopted and the first Red Cross Day was celebrated on 8 May 1948. The official title of the day changed over time and became ‘World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day’ in 1984.

World Red Cross Day: Fundamental principles

The fundamental principles of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent Movement are based on the following:

Humanity

Impartiality

Neutrality

Independence

Voluntary Service

Unity

Universality

World Red Cross Day: Responsibilities of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)

The core tasks of the committee which are derived from the Geneva Conventions and its own statutes are the following:

-to monitor compliance of warring parties with the Geneva Conventions

-to organize nursing and care for those who are wounded on the battlefield

-to supervise the treatment of prisoners of war

-to help with the search for missing persons in an armed conflict

-to organize protection and care for civil populations

-to arbitrate between warring parties in an armed conflicts

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