Since 1989, public alarm at the prospect of atomic Armageddon has quietened, but the number of nuclear-armed states has increased, arsenals are being modernized, and powerful states remain convinced that a nuclear security umbrella is vital to national defense, domestic prestige, and geopolitical clout.

Peter Maurer

Categorized in : Being Alarm Powerful Security

The Fourth Industrial Revolution does not just entail risks: it also brings solutions to humanitarian problems.

Peter Maurer

industrial-revolution risks problems

In our fibre-optic world of tweets and tablets, we are more conscious of the world around us. The technicolour violence and humanitarian abuses of today are just a flick of a switch away. In our homes, on the train, in our coffee shops, we see it, we feel it, we know about it. All of us. All of the time. Human suffering is visible, constantly.

Peter Maurer

coffee time today world

The International Committee of the Red Cross visits roughly half a million detainees in nearly 100 countries each year. It's our job to try to prevent and put an end to torture and ill-treatment.

Peter Maurer

end job try red

New technologies are rapidly giving rise to unprecedented methods of warfare. Innovations that yesterday were science fiction could cause catastrophe tomorrow, including nanotechnologies, combat robots, and laser weapons.

Peter Maurer

robots tomorrow yesterday science

Torture can destroy the social fabric of communities, degrade a society's institutions, and undermine the integrity of its political systems.

Peter Maurer

destroy society political integrity

Conflicts are not temporary interruptions: they are structural, socio-economic catastrophes, and funding must be allocated accordingly.

Peter Maurer

socio-economic must funding temporary

Ensuring the respect of international humanitarian law and principles is one of the key areas necessary to establish accountability chains.

Peter Maurer

chains respect principles law

Self-reliance is not always possible; we have to acknowledge that there are situations of dramatic crisis which will force us to substitute non-existing public delivery systems.

Peter Maurer

possible will always force

The whole essence of humanitarian work and the Geneva Convention is that neutral, impartial organisations can operate during war.

Peter Maurer

humanitarian essence work war

While conflicts have expanded and deepened and transformed, actors have transformed, and humanitarian assistance is transforming. Protection work is transforming and taking on another character.

Peter Maurer

another protection work character

The principal cause of suffering during humanitarian crises is insufficient respect of applicable rules of international humanitarian law.

Peter Maurer

principal respect suffering law

The disconnect between what people think and what the political leaders are actually doing is something that we really need to start raising.

Peter Maurer

start think political people

Experience shows that the reliance on illegal, immoral, and inhumane interrogation techniques is universally a very poor choice.

Peter Maurer

very choice experience poor

Torture and other forms of cruel or humiliating treatment are an affront to humanity, and the physical and psychological scars can last a lifetime.

Peter Maurer

scars cruel last humanity

Where you are born, your parent's beliefs, or your ethnic background should not make you a target.

Peter Maurer

your you born parent

The young, the old, women, the disabled, the sick and the wounded are entitled to protection under international law. Too often, the ICRC's calls for those laws to be respected are ignored.

Peter Maurer

old women sick law

I have known Sepp Blatter, FIFA and football for a long time, and there are some fundamental values which FIFA and the ICRC share.

Peter Maurer

long-time time football long

Trust into leadership evaporates with communities when they see that their problems are not adequately addressed, neither at the national level nor at the international arena.

Peter Maurer

problems see trust leadership

Even in war, everyone deserves to be treated humanely.

Peter Maurer

deserves everyone even war

Humanitarian action cannot be held hostage to political ends.

Peter Maurer

cannot humanitarian political action