1963

International Committee of the Red Cross

League of Red Cross Societies

for promoting the principles of the Geneva Convention and cooperation with the UN

International Committee of the Red Cross

Switzerland

Peace Prize winner for the third time

The International Committee of the Red Cross was declared the winner of the Peace Prize both in 1917 and in 1944. The main reason was its efforts during the two World Wars. In 1963, it was 100 years since the Peace Prize Laureate in 1901, Henri Dunant, founded the Red Cross. On the occasion of the centenary, the Norwegian Nobel Committee wished to call attention to the importance of the organization in the global community. It also wished to reward the organization's work since World War II, but this time the Swiss Red Cross Committee shared the honor with the League of Red Cross Societies. Together, the two organizations made up what is now known as the International Red Cross. The Nobel Committee paid tribute to the International Committee of the Red Cross in particular for its work on the revised Geneva Convention of 1949 and its work during the conflicts in Hungary, Algeria, the Congo and Tibet.

League of Red Cross Societies

France

The International Cooperative Body for the National Societies

The League of Red Cross Societies was founded in 1919, the year after the end of World War I. The initiative came from Henry P. Davison, President of the American Red Cross. Experience from the war showed that the national Red Cross Societies ought to cooperate more closely also in peacetime. The Red Cross Societies of the USA, Great Britain, France, Italy and Japan were the first members of the League, known today as the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. The League's first task was to undertake aid work in countries where the populations had suffered most severely during the war. Since then, the organization has carried out extensive aid work in peacetime when flooding, droughts and other natural disasters have led to hunger, need and death.