Rules of war have existed across all cultures and religions since earliest times. Often they were informal understandings and principles, codes of chilvary and honour, or ad hoc agreements negotiated on the battlefield. Modern International Humanitarian Law (IHL) is different, in that the customs of war have been written down and formally agreed to as international law by nation States.

The idea began on 24 June, 1859 in Solferino, a town in northern Italy, where French, Italian and Australian troops were fighting and 40,000 people were left wounded or dead after only a few hours.

The sight of the sick and wounded appalled a Swiss businessman named Henry Dunant who was travlling in the region. He set about helping them, regardless of their nationality, and called on the local population to join him, with the rallying cry "Tutti fratelli" ("All men are brothers").

On his return to Switzerland, Henry Dunant, unable to forget the horrors he had witnessed, wrote a book entitled "A Memory of Solferino" calling for measures to limit the suffering in wartime. Dunant's book led to the creation of a five-member commission, which in turn, in 1863, became the Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

In 1864, the ICRC succeeded in persuading the Swiss Government to convene an international conference. Sixteen countries participated and the tangible result was the First Geneva Convention, for the "Amelioration of the Wounded Armies in the Field", signed by twelve nations.

The red cross on a white ground, the reverse of the Swiss flag, became the international symbol of protection, and the identifying symbol of a new worldwide movement of neutral volunteers. Thus, from the very beginning, the Red Cross Movement and IHL have been inextricably linked and have developed side by side.