The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the founding agent of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, is registered under the laws of Switzerland, where it has its headquarters, as a private association. At the same time, it is recognized in public international law and has signed a headquarters agreement with the Swiss federal authorities as if it were an intergovernmental organization. Although its professional staff has been internationalized since the early 1990s, its top policy-making organ, variously called the Committee or the Assembly, remains all-Swiss. The mandate of the ICRC has always been, and remains, responding to the needs of victims of conflict. The organization started with a focus on wounded combatants in international war, then progressively added a concern for: detained combatants in international war, all persons adversely affected by internal or civil war, those detained by reason of...