Peter Maurer Quotes
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Humanitarian action cannot be held hostage to political ends.
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You don't torture people. You don't indiscriminately attack civilians. You protect as good as you can the impact of your warfare on women and children.
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We live in an environment in which connectivity and cyberspace are transforming all workplaces, including the humanitarian workplace.
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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.
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While the nature of warfare is changing and wars are moving into cities, they are also becoming longer and their consequences more impactful.
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We need to understand that the Geneva Conventions are not just some historical documents born of another time, created for another purpose.
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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.
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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.
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As conflicts last longer, as the scale of needs increase, we are having to adapt. There is an increasing blurring between immediate humanitarian assistance and long-term development needs.
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The Fourth Industrial Revolution does not just entail risks: it also brings solutions to humanitarian problems.
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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.
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You treat detainees humanely because you know the other side will also treat detainees humanely.
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The issue of corruption in the humanitarian system is not an issue which is fundamentally different from dangers of corruption in other areas. One of the best ways to strengthen accountability is to engage in principled and law-based humanitarian action.
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Fragility, violence, and conflict are complex. Fragility is influenced by a wide set of factors, many of which are deeply entrenched, such as high social and income inequality. The lines between criminal, inter-communal, and politically motivated violence are often blurred.
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Not only does disability impact individual health and well-being, it also leads to social and economic exclusion.
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Experience shows that the reliance on illegal, immoral, and inhumane interrogation techniques is universally a very poor choice.
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The creative capacity of the private sector should be harnessed to develop new and more effective ways to deliver humanitarian solutions.
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The whole essence of humanitarian work and the Geneva Convention is that neutral, impartial organisations can operate during war.
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Self-reliance is not always possible; we have to acknowledge that there are situations of dramatic crisis which will force us to substitute non-existing public delivery systems.
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Short-termism is no longer an option. We have to envisage humanitarian action with a medium- and long-term perspective.
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I have known Sepp Blatter, FIFA and football for a long time, and there are some fundamental values which FIFA and the ICRC share.
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The discourse of sovereignty is a relative one when a crisis has become a global crisis.
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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.
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People living through armed conflicts need infrastructure and services which will last, and the last thing on their mind is which budget line applies.