Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement
The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is an international humanitarian movement founded in 1863 and uniting more than 17 million staff members and volunteers around the world. The Movement considers its main goal “to help all those who suffer, without any adverse distinction, thereby contributing to the establishment of peace on Earth”.
The components of the International Red Cross:
the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC);
the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC);
the National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
The supreme governing body of the Movement is the International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, which is held, as a rule, once every 4 years.
One of the significant areas of the Movement’s activity is international humanitarian law (IHL), which governs the principles and rules concerning the means and methods of warfare, as well as the humanitarian protection of the civilian population, sick and wounded military personnel, and prisoners of war.
The Republic of Belarus is a party to all key international treaties in the field of IHL and takes an active part in the consideration of issues related to strengthening and disseminating knowledge of IHL. At the national level, the Commission for the Implementation of International Humanitarian Law under the Council of Ministers has been established, chaired by the Minister of Justice.
On 7–9 November 2017, the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross Peter Maurer paid a working visit to Belarus. This visit was the first in the history of cooperation between Belarus and the ICRC.
During the visit, Peter Maurer met with the President of the Republic of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko. The meeting covered the state and prospects of cooperation, and mutual interest in strengthening interaction was noted. A. Lukashenko stressed that Belarus would always support the activities of humanitarian organizations, and that the visit and the planned opening of an ICRC office in Belarus would mark the beginning of a new stage of cooperation. P. Maurer highly praised Belarus’s humanitarian and peacekeeping activities, expressed gratitude for the support provided to the Committee, and voiced the hope that Belarus could become a facilitator of the expansion of humanitarian activities at the regional level.
Since 2018, the ICRC Delegation in Belarus has been operating in Minsk. It was opened on the basis of the Agreement between the Republic of Belarus and the International Committee of the Red Cross on the Status, Privileges and Immunities of the International Committee of the Red Cross in the Republic of Belarus.
The main area of interaction between the Belarusian side and the ICRC remains attracting assistance for the Belarusian Red Cross (BRC) for the implementation of humanitarian projects. At present, the priorities include facilitating exchanges of prisoners of war and providing assistance to victims and displaced persons in the course of the armed conflict in Ukraine.
ICRC representatives regularly take part in the annual Minsk Conferences on Eurasian Security. In 2024, the ICRC also participated in the International Conference on Countering Illegal Migration.
In September 2024, a meeting between the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus Maxim Ryzhenkov and ICRC President Mirjana Spoljaric Egger took place in New York.
In November 2025, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus Igor Sekreta held talks in Geneva with the Director of the IFRC Regional Office for Europe Birgitte Bischoff Ebbesen, and in July 2026 he received IFRC Vice-President, member of the Swiss Red Cross Council Manuel Bessler, who was on a working visit to Belarus.
The Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement implements humanitarian projects in Belarus in the fields of healthcare, education, mitigation of the consequences of emergencies, and support for vulnerable categories of the population.
