International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement

The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is an international humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million volunteers, members and staff worldwide which was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure respect for all human beings, and to prevent and alleviate human suffering.

The movement consists of several distinct organizations that are legally independent from each other, but are united within the movement through common basic principles, objectives, symbols, statutes and governing organisations. The movement's parts are:

Emblems of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement

The emblems of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, under the Geneva Conventions, are to be placed on humanitarian and medical vehicles and buildings, and to be worn by medical personnel and others carrying out humanitarian work, to protect them from military attack on the battlefield. There are four such emblems, three of which are in use: the Red Cross, the Red Crescent, and the Red Crystal. The Red Lion and Sun is also a recognized emblem, but is no longer in use.

There were also prior disputes concerning the use of a Red Star of David by Magen David Adom (MDA), the Israeli first-aid society; the Red Crystal was created in response to these disputes, thus enabling the admission of MDA to the movement.

In popular culture, the red cross symbol came to be a recognisable generic emblem for medicine, commonly associated with first aid, medical services, products, or professionals; it has been misused in toys, movies, and video games, outside its defined context. After objections from the Movement, derivatives and alternatives are used. Johnson & Johnson had registered the symbol for their medicinal products. The misuse of the red cross symbol turns out to become a kind of an even double misusage of otherwise occupied symbols when first aid teams and stations in USA are falsely indicated by the Swiss national flag by simply re-applying the original idea of the red cross symbol, namely by reversing the red cross symbol's colors, usually seen at US-American ski resorts for indicating first aid or ski patrols, for example.