Jean-Henri Dunant Witnessing the aftermath of the 1859
Battle of Solferino in
Northern Italy, whereupon he saw thousands of Italian, French and Austrian soldiers killing and
maiming each other, Henri Dunant, a Swiss businessman, took the initiative of establishing a neutral aid organization to help the sick and wounded on the battlefield. The result was the establishment of the
International Committee of the Red Cross in 1863 with the assistance of jurist
Gustave Moynier, army general
Henri Dufour, and doctors
Théodore Maunoir and
Louis Appia – all would become the founding fathers of the Red Cross Committee – and the adoption of the
Geneva Convention in the following year. It laid down the realization of Dunant's idea for an independent organization to care and rescue for wounded soldiers. Dunant write a book recording his experiences,
Un Souvenir de Solferino ("A Memory of Solferino", 1862), which he uses as a reminder for his humanitarian advocacy and inspiration for his cause.
Frédéric Passy As a prominent economist and politician, Frédéric Passy was involved in many pacifist causes. He founded the first French Peace Society, which held a congress in
Paris during the
1878 World Exhibition and also was one of the founding fathers of the
Inter-Parliamentary Union, an organization for cooperation between the elected representatives of different countries. As an independent leftist republic in the
French Chamber of Deputies, he opposed France's colonial policy since it went against the principles of free trade and maintained that free trade between independent nations promoted peace. Passy continued to campaigning for peace despite his advanced age. Despite his economic works gaining little traction, his efforts in the peace movement resulted in him being recognized as the "dean of European peace activists". ==Deliberations==