Peter Maurer Quotes
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We still have a strong commitment to our original mission, which is to protect and assist people who are suffering from the impact of violence, but the violence has changed its character, format, and pattern so that we are now responding year after year.
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To respond to people's needs, humanitarian action has evolved from a temporary fix to a long-term safety net.
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They say that truth is the first casualty of war. But there is another casualty as well: trust. As conflict escalates, trust between people and political leaders crumbles away as surely as night follows day.
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The Fourth Industrial Revolution does not just entail risks: it also brings solutions to humanitarian problems.
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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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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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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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You treat detainees humanely because you know the other side will also treat detainees humanely.
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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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Conflicts are not temporary interruptions: they are structural, socio-economic catastrophes, and funding must be allocated accordingly.
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The International Committee of the Red Cross visits roughly half a million detainees in nearly 100 countries each year. It's our job to try to prevent and put an end to torture and ill-treatment.
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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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Local businesses and communities must be included from the very start in developing solutions to fragility, violence, and conflict.
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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 creative capacity of the private sector should be harnessed to develop new and more effective ways to deliver humanitarian solutions.
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We must understand the factors that cause fragility, violence, and conflict in order to develop solutions that will meaningfully reduce instability at its roots rather than merely addressing the symptoms.
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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.
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Trust into leadership evaporates with communities when they see that their problems are not adequately addressed, neither at the national level nor at the international arena.
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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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We demonize our enemies at our own peril.
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Torture can destroy the social fabric of communities, degrade a society's institutions, and undermine the integrity of its political systems.
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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.