The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been in existence for almost 160 years, and for the first time in the history of the Geneva aid organization, a woman will be at the helm: Mirjana Spoljaric Egger, Swiss diplomat and currently Assistant General Secretary and Deputy Administrator at the UN development program UNDP. As the ICRC announced on Thursday, the assembly, the main organ of the organization, elected the 50-year-old as the new president. In October she will succeed Peter Maurer, also Swiss and ICRC President for nine years.
Born in today’s Croatia and raised in Switzerland, Spoljaric Egger is a studied philosopher, economist and international lawyer. She started her career in 2000 in the Swiss Foreign Ministry. After diplomatic posts in Bern, Cairo, New York and Amman, she took over the management of the UN department in the Foreign Ministry in Bern in 2015. In 2018 he switched to UNDP in New York, which made Spoljaric Egger one of the highest-ranking Swiss at the UN.
Emergency aid for people affected by war and violence
It is a great honor, the ICRC diplomat says, to have been elected President of an organization that she has long admired. “I will endeavor to highlight the needs of the most vulnerable and to meet the incredible work of ICRC teams in conflict situations around the world.” Still-President Maurer praised the international and diplomatic experience of his successor. She will be a “strong and passionate advocate for people affected by conflict and violence”.
Mirjana Spoljaric Egger takes on an internationally highly regarded position. The International Committee of the Red Cross, founded in Geneva in 1863, played a key role in ensuring that today there are internationally recognized rules for dealing with disabled people, prisoners of war and civilians. In addition to the continuous development of international humanitarian law, the organization has also been providing emergency aid for people affected by war and violence since its inception. The ICRC, with around 20,000 employees, sees itself together with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and the 190 national societies as a global humanitarian movement.
The charisma of this independent and neutral organization is so great that the Swiss state rarely fails to point out the founding country of the ICRC. When it comes to Switzerland’s alleged “humanitarian tradition”, the Geneva organization often has to serve as evidence – even though the country attracted attention, especially during the Second World War, with a restrictive refugee policy.