In the early years of the Movement's existence, unity of thought was essentially maintained by the unity of common endeavour. Without being set out in any written agreement,specific humanitarian values rapidly came to light as constituent elements of the Movement. As early as 1875 Gustave Moynier spoke offour basic working principles which the Movement's Societies must observe: foresight, which means that preparations should be made in advance, in peacetime, to provide assistanceshould war break out; solidarity, whereby the Societies undertake to establish mutual ties and to help each other; centralization, which implies that there is only one Society in each country, but whose activities extend throughout the entire national territory; and mutuality, in thesense that care is given to all the wounded andthe sick irrespective of their nationality.

It was not until 1921 that the Fundamental Principles - impartiality, political, religiousand economic independence, the universalityof the Movement and the equality of its members - were formally put in writing. That was when they were incorporated into the revisedStatutes of the International Committee of theRed Cross, the Movement's founding body.

After the Second World War, the XlXth Session of the League's Board of Governors (Oxford, 1946) adopted a Declaration confirming the four 1921 principles, supplemented by another thirteen principles and six rules of application. The 18th International Conference of the Red Cross (Toronto, 1952) reaffirmed the Oxford principles. Those principles were not, however, the subject of a systematic treatise until1955, when Jean Pictet, in his book on the RedCross Principles, defined and analysed all the values which guide the work of the Movement.He thus listed seventeen principles divided intotwo categories: on the one hand, the Fundamental Principles, which express the very reason for the Movement's existence and inspireand influence all it does; and on the other hand,the organic principles, which concern the Movement's structure and how it works.

On the basis of this in-depth study, the Movement's seven Fundamental Principles as they stand today were unanimously adopted in 1965 by the 20th International Conference of the Red Cross, which also decided that they should be solemnly read out at the opening of every International Conference.

The 25th International Conference of the Red Cross (Geneva, 1986) reaffirmed the importance of the Principles by including them in the Preamble to the Movement's Statutes. The responsibility of the National Societies to respect and disseminate knowledge of the Principles was underscored in new statutory provisions, while the States were called upon to respect at all times the adherence by all the components of the Movement to the Fundamental Principles.