Rana Sidani in Geneva
The newly elected Chairman of the Standing Commission of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, Dr. Mohammad Al-Hadid, President of Jordan Red Crescent Society (JRCS), inherits a heavy agenda as he begins his four-year mandate. Al-Hadid was elected during the 28th International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent in Geneva.
“The Movement is faced with many new challenges, such as the security of our humanitarian personnel taking part in critical operations,” he says. “We will have to see how we can try to secure the safety of our staff and volunteers in order for them to be able to do their work.”
Red Cross and Red Crescent staff and volunteers have increasingly come under attack in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.
The Standing Commission, which has nine members, five elected from Red Cross and Red Crescent National Societies and two each from both the International Federation and ICRC and IFRC, has a special role in settling any differences of opinion which may arise as to the interpretation and application of Movement Statutes.
The other four National Society representatives elected to the Standing Commission at the conference were: Janet Davidson of the Canadian Red Cross, who will be the commission’s vice-chairperson; Dr Freddy Karup Pedersen, president of the Danish Red Cross; Philippe Cuvillier of the French Red Cross; and Zoy Katevas de Sclabos, president of the Chilean Red Cross.
Emblem
Among the priorities of the newly elected Commission, according to al-Hadid, will be a review of the Seville agreement, which determines the mandate of each part of the Movement. “We have a good basis for regulating the work of all the component parts, but from our field experience we found that there are some gaps,” al-Hadid says.
He said a third priority would be the emblem issue: that is, finding a solution to the problems faced by countries that cannot use the emblems established by the Geneva Conventions. A process is now in place for the establishment of an additional protective emblem.
“The issue of the emblem has being going on for so many years now and the Standing Commission is still committed to finding a comprehensive and lasting solution so we can achieve universality and more importantly, to provide protection and save more lives,” he added.
The new Standing Commission chairman is used to dealing with difficult situations, such as building camps in the middle of the desert on the Jordan-Iraqi border – twice.
As part of its contingency plans before the war in Iraq this year, the JRCS prepared a transit camp at Ruweishid to host any outflow of people fleeing Iraq. Despite extreme temperatures, sand storms, scorpions and snakes, the JRCS volunteers were able to bring assistance to many people.
“We didn’t have as many refugees as during the 1991 conflict,” said al-Hadid. “But in over ten weeks, the camp hosted just over 2,000 third country nationals. It became vacant from the end of June but was left standing until the end of July in anticipation of any emerging emergencies.”
Challenge
If this year’s operation was challenging, what al-Hadid went through when he was Director of the Red Crescent operation during the first Gulf war in 1990/1 was much worse.
Within 48 hours of Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, hundreds of thousands of migrant workers fled Iraq and poured into Jordan, sometimes at a rate of 10,000 a day. More than one million people passed through the country. Building on that experience, and subsequent training for volunteers, the recent experience was “a piece of cake”, notes Al-Hadid.
The 52-year-old has dedicated more than half of his life to the Red Crescent, beginning as a volunteer, becoming head of the youth branch and then President of the Jordan Red Crescent Society in 1993. Since then he has also served as vice-president of the Federation and as chairman of its Disaster Relief Commission.
“I cannot imagine myself doing anything else. It is my life,” he stressed. ‘Being Chairman of the Standing Commission is more than I could have dreamed of.”
Al-Hadid who belongs to one of the largest tribes in Jordan holds a PhD in clinical chemistry from Birmingham University in Britain. He is married and has six children.