The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is made up of: the International Committee of the Red Cross, the National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement was born on the initiative of a Swiss businessman, Henry Dunant (1828-1910) in 1859 after one of the bloodiest battles of the century, the Battle of Solferino. Dunant drew the world's attention to the need to set up relief societies and to promote an international agreement on aid for the wounded and their carers.

The Battle of Solferino took place on June 24, 1859, in northern Italy, where the armies of France and Austria (over 320 000 men) fought fiercely for 16 hours. The resulting number of dead and wounded on the battlefield was 40 000.

The battle was a victory for the French, but the cost was enormous: corpses were piled on top of each other and the wounded lay untended. There were not enough surgeons. Although there were four vets to care for a thousand horses, there was only one doctor for the same number of men, and no doctor for the artillery forces.

Henry Dunant had come to meet Napoleon III on business. He witnessed the horrific picture after the battle. The humanitarian disaster resulting from the clash of the belligerents made a deep impression on him. He gathered people from the neighboring village and spent three days, without interruption, caring for the wounded. His words "Siamo tutti fratelli" (we are all brothers) opened the hearts of the volunteers, who cared for enemies and countrymen alike.

Henry Dunant returned to Switzerland, where he continued to be troubled by the nightmare he had witnessed at Solferino. Perhaps also to put the images out of his mind, he wrote a book and published it at his own expense in November 1862.

It was called A Memory of Solferino. Dunant's main aim was to bring to the world's attention the harsh reality of war. So he sent his book to the ruling families of Europe, but also to military leaders, politicians, philanthropists and friends. The book was an immediate and unexpected success, with Dunant receiving numerous invitations and becoming the subject of a wave of admiration.

The book proposed two ideas that proved to be of crucial importance:

(a) the establishment in every country of a war-wounded aid society of volunteers;

b) the promotion of an international agreement to protect soldiers wounded on the battlefield and those who care for them, thus giving them neutral status.

The book "A Memory of Solferino" has had a very important influence. In less than a year, as a result of the proposals it contained, a world organization was created. It was to Dunant's credit that he succeeded in persuading states to codify and recognize the customs of war.

At that time, in Geneva, there was the Society for Public Welfare, whose president was the lawyer Gustave Moynier. He was deeply impressed by A Remembrance of Solferino. He invited Dunant to come and discuss his book with the other members of the society. The meeting resulted in the setting up of a five-member commission. In addition to Dunant and Moynier, the commission included General Guillaume Henri Dufour, Dr. Louis Appia and Dr. Theodore Maunoir.

The commission met for the first time on February 17, 1863, and called itself the International Committee for the Relief of the Ranians, which in 1876 would become the International Committee of the Red Cross.

In the months that followed the meeting of the Public Welfare Society and the establishment of the International Committee for the Relief of the Wounded, the five members of the society engaged in intense activity which, in October 1863, led to the organization of an international conference in Geneva - in fact, a meeting of experts from 16 countries. During this conference, a distinctive emblem - a red cross on a white background (the reverse of the Swiss flag) - was adopted to identify and therefore protect volunteers who give aid to wounded soldiers. Thus the Red Cross was born.

At the end of the International Conference in 1863, Dunant's first idea - to set up a voluntary society in every country - became a reality with the establishment of the first National Societies. Such societies were established a few months after the International Conference in Wurttemburg, the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg, Belgium and Prussia. Then came societies in Denmark, France, Italy, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Spain, Hamburg and Hesse. At that time they were called "national committees" or "relief societies", but later they began to be known as National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

By the end of the First World War, large parts of Europe were in chaos: the economy had been destroyed, the population decimated by epidemics, large numbers of refugees and stateless people were looking for a place on the continent. The war clearly demonstrated the need for close cooperation between Red Cross Societies which, through their wartime activities on behalf of prisoners of war and combatants, had attracted millions of volunteers and built up a large body of experts. Henry P. Davidson, chairman of the War Committee of the American Red Cross, proposed at an international medical conference (April 1919, Cannes, France) "the federalization of the Red Cross Societies of the various countries into an organization comparable to the League of Nations for the purpose of a permanent medical crusade for the improvement of health, the prevention of disease, and the relief of suffering."

The League of Red Cross Societies was formally founded, with headquarters in Paris, by the Red Cross Societies of France, Great Britain, Italy, Japan and the United States on May 5, 1919, with the primary objective of improving the health of the people of countries that had suffered greatly during the four years of war. It was also intended "to strengthen and unite existing Red Cross Societies for health activities and to promote the creation of new societies". A crucial part of the Federation's work is to provide and coordinate assistance to victims of natural disasters and epidemics. In 1939, its permanent headquarters was in Geneva.

In 1991, the decision was taken to change the name of the League of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies to "International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies".