International Red Cross

The Hon. R.A. SIMMS (17:46): I move:

That this council—

1. Recognises that:

(a) 2025 marks the 60^th anniversary of the fundamental principles of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement;

(b) the seven fundamental principles—humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity and universality—sum up the ethics of the worldwide movement, the tools and methods it uses to achieve its goal of alleviating suffering wherever it may be found, and the organisational principles that support its operations and impact.

2. Acknowledges the significant impact these seven fundamental principles have had in alleviating suffering particularly in times of conflict, crisis and other emergencies—both here in Australia and around the world.

3. Commends Australian Red Cross and all members of the International Red Cross Red Crescent for its principled humanitarian action, impartial and independent, taking only action and never sides.

The motion I am moving today recognises the work of the Red Cross, the seven fundamental principles of the International Red Cross movement. The movement is an ethical and operational framework that binds on all of its members, helping to ensure that it is a trusted brand the world over.

These principles are not just a theory; they guide and guardrail the movement's work each and every day. They exist to enable and protect the work and its people for today and tomorrow, often in places others literally cannot go to. Around the world, states have mandated the movement to apply its fundamental principles and they have committed to respecting the movement, abiding everywhere and at all times by those tried and true principles.

The date of 7 October marks the day 60 years ago when the movement's seven fundamental principles were adopted in Vienna at the 1965 Red Cross Crescent International Conference. The four-yearly international conferences are attended by states party to the 1949 Geneva Conventions. Every country in the world participates and all members of the global humanitarian movement. I seek leave to conclude my remarks.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.