Episode 1 of 1

First Meeting of the Committee of Five

Name: First Meeting of the Committee of Five
Start: 1863-02-17
Location: Geneva

When: 17 February 1863
Where: Geneva
Part of: Committee of Five meets in Geneva, founding the International Committee of the Red Cross

The five men held their first meeting on 17 February 1863, declaring themselves a Permanent International Committee for Relief of Wounded.

Following the Geneva Society for Public Welfare's appointment of five members to form a sub-committee, the group met on 17 February 1863. They decided to constitute themselves as a Permanent International Committee, ensuring its existence beyond the Society's mandate. This event is regarded as the foundation of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Sources

International Committee of the Red Cross Wikipedia, revision of 2026-10-07
Henry Dunant Wikipedia, revision of 2026-10-01

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.