On 21 October, Dr Peter Maurer, President of the ICRC, was on an official visit in the Principality, where he was granted an audience by HSH the Sovereign Prince in the Palace of Monaco.
HSH Prince Albert II, President of the Monegasque Red Cross (CRM), and Dr Maurer then went to Red Cross Headquarters at 27 Boulevard de Suisse, for a presentation of the highlights of Monegasque Red Cross activities in 2014.
This new working meeting was held in the presence in particular of Philippe Narmino, Vice-President of CRM, Bettina Ragazzoni, Treasurer General, Michel-Yves Mourou, Councillor**, Georges Comninos, Head of the ICRC Regional Delegation. It follows HSH the Prince’s official visit to ICRC Headquarters in Geneva last year that helped consolidate relations between the two institutions and look into new lines of cooperation.
Dr Peter Maurer’s visit to Monaco ended with an official working lunch, attended in particular by José Badia, Government Councillor for External Affairs and Cooperation, and Carole Lanteri, Ambassador, Permanent Representative of the Principality of Monaco with the United Nations Office at Geneva and International Organizations based in Switzerland.
Many issues, such as ICRC intervention in Africa, a continent which represents a special focus for the Department of International Cooperation, and the Near East, the stakes for the 32nd International Red Cross Conference and those of the World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul in 2016 were discussed during this official visit.
The Monegasque Government is a loyal ICRC partner, both contributing to its Annual Appeal and responding to some of its Emergency Appeals.
* Founded in 1863, the ICRC is at the origin of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, whose international activities it manages and coordinates in the context of armed conflicts and other situations of violence, with the exclusively humanitarian mission of protecting victims’ lives and dignity and providing them with assistance. The ICRC also strives to prevent suffering by promoting and reinforcing universal humanitarian law and principles.
This impartial, neutral, independent organization’s mandate derives essentially from the Geneva Conventions of 1949. Based in Geneva, Switzerland, it employs some 12,000 people in 80 countries and is funded mainly by donations from Governments and National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
On 9 October 2013, HSH Prince Albert II went to ICRC Headquarters in Geneva, where he discovered the new International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum, a key visit for the ICRC’s 150th anniversary.
** Frédéric Platini, Secretary General of the CRM, was away on business abroad and so was unable to attend.
