This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.
The International Committee of the Red Cross traces its founding to 1863, when the Swiss businessman Henry Dunant organized what became known as the Committee of the Five with four fellow Geneva citizens, following his 1862 account of the Battle of Solferino, A Memory of Solferino, which had described in detail the suffering of wounded soldiers left on the battlefield without adequate care from either side. The private Swiss humanitarian body that grew out of that account has since been given a unique international legal mandate as guardian and promoter of the Geneva Conventions, the treaties that govern the conduct of war and the treatment of its casualties and prisoners.
The Committee's work has been recognized with the Nobel Peace Prize three times, in 1917, 1944 and 1963, the last shared with the League of Red Cross Societies, more than any other recipient in the prize's history, a record that reflects both world wars' demand for its services and the continuity of its mandate across a century of conflict. It is governed today by a Committee headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, the city where Dunant first organized his response to Solferino, currently led by President Mirjana Spoljaric Egger.