Press Release
President of the International Committee of the Red Cross and former Swiss diplomat, Dr. Peter Maurer, delivered a public address titled “Negotiating on the Frontlines of 21st Century Conflicts” in April for an Harvard Kennedy School event organized by the Future of Diplomay Project and co-sponsored by the Middle East Initiative (MEI) and the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI). In the address moderated by Future of Diplomacy Project Faculty Director R. Nicholas Burns, Dr. Peter Maurer spoke on frontline humanitarian negotiations in Syria, Iraq, and Africa, drawing on his personal experiences as chief negotiator of the ICRC in intense negotiation situations and with high-level officials.
Singularity of the ICRC
Speaking to students, faculty, and experts at Harvard University, Dr. Peter Maurer introduced the ICRC as an international humanitarian organization promoting access and protection to civilian victims of armed conflict around the world. “The mandate and bandwidth of [our] activity is quite unique; we are not like human rights advocacy groups because we carry the mandate of states and the legal framework and the policy engagement that states are ready to offer." Beyond its singularity as an humanitarian organization "mandated by states," Dr. Maurer emphasized the uniqueness of the ICRC as an organization that "engages with non-state armed groups and all parties to conflict” according to the Geneva Convention, using both interest and power-based negotiation practices combined with high-level diplomatic exchanges. Dr. Maurer raised how these levels of negotiation and diplomacy have coalesced in recent exchanges with the Syrian authorities in Aleppo, where the ICRC has received consensus among 20 armed groups to mount meaningful relief operations for food, health and medicine provisions.
How humanitarian negotiations have changed
On the issue of the changing landscape of humanitarian negotiations, Dr. Maurer discussed how “chains of command do not offer reliable security anymore.” "10 or 12 years ago we could still talk to the heads of the Taliban in Afghanistan to create vaccination programs," stated Dr. Maurer. Reflecting on the highly different situation in conflict areas such as Syria, Dr. Maurer raised the fact that there were “tens of hundreds of groups, unclear chains of command, complicated territory in which to operate and therefore very complicated negotiating environment in which we move.”
"The Middle East needs long-term systematic engagement from the international community"
Dr. Maurer discussed the instability and conflict in the Middle East and criticized the lack of meaningful international commitment to support meaningful political frameworks or stability. Addressing "the regional imbroglio in the Middle East," Dr. Maurer spoke about how this lack of political structure is making it difficult for the international community to ensure "security, peace, and basic services to people." "The consequence is escalating conflicts, radical extremism which gains momentum in the field; it's deconstructed conflicts in which chains of command of groups and states do not offer reliable security," declared Dr. Maurer.
The future of the ICRC
Dr. Maurer celebrated the growth of the ICRC in numbers and in regional span across the globe. He also raised the ICRC's commitments for the future to innovating, enhancing, and improving it's supply chain of services by partnering with private sectors and leveraging modern technologies to service more people with less resources. As part of his visit to Harvard University, Dr. Maurer acknowledged the ICRC's additional commitment to systematize known negotiation practices to teach and train their representatives as well as exchange and interface knowledge with other organizations, academics, and practitioners in the months and years to come. By accumulating good practices from all over the world, including institutes such as Harvard University, Dr. Maurer expressed his hope to figure out the best ways to make "humanitarian principles on the ground."