Opening Remarks by Dr. Arvind Gupta, Director VIF

Dear friends,

It’s a great pleasure for me to welcome you all to a talk by Mr Jeremy England, Head of the Regional Delegation of the International Committee of International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on the important subject ‘Humanitarian Perspectives on Global Security Trends’.

Mr England, who is from New Zealand, is the head of Regional Delegation of ICRC in India. He has worked in the international aid sector for over 25 years. He was head of regional delegation in Malaysia from 2012 to 2015 and has served in ICRC delegations in many countries. In his current responsibility he also looks after ICRC’s activities in Nepal, Bhutan and the Maldives.

As you are aware ICRC is a respected, non-political, independent organisation with delegation in over 60 countries and activities in 80 countries. It describes itself as “Neither an advocacy group, nor an NGO or human right group”. ICRC claims to be completely neutral. Its key aim is to provide assistance to those affected by humanitarian crisis. The ICRC’s mission statement describes the ICRC as, “An impartial, neutral and independent organisation whose exclusively humanitarian mission is to protect the lives and dignity of victims of armed conflict and other situation of violence and to provide them with assistance”. It describes itself as the guardian and promoter of International Humanitarian Law whose job is to assist victims of conflict and other situation of violence.

ICRC’s association with India goes back more than 100 years. In India, ICRC works closely with Indian Red Cross Society and other stakeholders. It opened its Delegation in New Delhi in 1982 but it had also been active during the year of violence in India at the time of partition, in 1965 and 1971. In 1985, it signed a MoU with Government of India which permitted ICRC’s visit to persons arrested, detained and imprisoned in the context of the situation in J&K. The MoU was signed under unique circumstances. Since it is connected with the J&K, ICRC’s activities have often raised skepticism in India. But it must be noted that in collaboration with the Indian Red Cross Society, the ICRC supports a wide range of useful activities including the area of physical rehabilitation, economic security, health and innovation.

We see huge violence around the world in the shape of civil wars, terrorism, gender discrimination, religious extremism, and human, drug and arm trafficking. A large numbers of people have been killed and millions displaced. We also see the emergence of new, cheap and easily available technologies; uncontrolled and unregulated, these technologies can amplify violent behavior. These will also change the nature of warfare and will have impact on the functioning the International Humanitarian Law.

It will be interesting to hear Mr Engalnd’s perspective on the contemporary global security trends as seen from a humanitarian perspective. I invite Mr England to deliver his talk.