The Diplomat
Spain will assume from today, and for one year, the presidency of the Donors Support Group of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the main international humanitarian institution in conflict situations.
The Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) and the Directorate General of the United Nations, International Organizations and Human Rights of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will jointly assume the chairmanship.
Spain’s election was formalized during the annual meeting of the ICRC Donors Support Group held in Tokyo (Japan) this June, at which the Japanese authorities handed over leadership of the group to Cristina Gutiérrez, head of AECID’s Humanitarian Action Office, and Juan Villar, deputy director general for Multilateral Organizations at the Ministry. The Spanish presidency of the Donors Group will last for one year,
During the meeting, the Spanish representation announced that its period of chairmanship will address, in particular, access to and protection of healthcare in conflict situations – one of the Committee’s core mandates – and the ongoing violation of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) in many of today’s conflicts. “In fact, compliance with IHL will be one of the central thematic focuses during the period of the Spanish presidency, and a key issue in the future of the ICRC’s action, which is currently undergoing a review of its mandate and institutional structure,” AECID stated in a press release.
“Spain wishes to express its strongest commitment to supporting the work of the International Committee of the Red Cross,” said Cristina Gutiérrez, who highlighted “the fundamental work of the ICRC at a time when the international humanitarian system is facing an unprecedented financial situation, which is nothing more than a reflection of the multiplicity of crises that have emerged in the last three years, and which overlap with the latent ones that are resurfacing and the maintenance of those that have not been able to be tackled and have become chronic.”
This will be Spain’s second chairmanship of the ICRC Donors Support Group, following that held in 2009. Membership of the Group requires an annual contribution of ten million Swiss francs, the equivalent of just over ten million euros. Apart from that, Spain has been part of the ICRC Group from 2006 to the present, except for the period from 2014 to 2018. In the last four years, Spanish Cooperation has increased its support to the ICRC. In 2021 it exceeded €12 million and in 2022 it exceeded €17.5 million.
The ICRC Donors Support Group is composed of 23 donor countries and organizations and holds annual meetings like the one last week, on a rotating basis. The meeting held in Japan last week was attended by a total of 38 participants from 22 countries and organizations, in addition to ICRC representatives.
