Amendments to the Principles and Rules for Red Cross and Red Crescent Disaster Relief

The Twenty-fifth International Conference of the Red Cross

1. decides that Article 5 shall henceforth be worded as follows:

"Ways and means of assistance

Red Cross assistance to victims is given free of charge and without any distinction as to nationality, race, religion, social condition or political opinion. It is made available on the basis of the relative importance o individual needs and in order of their emergency.

Red Cross relief is administered with economy, efficiency and effective ness. Its utilization is the subject of reports, including audited accounts o income and expenditure, reflecting a true and fair view of its affairs.",

2. decides that Article 14 A shall henceforth be worded as follows:

"Initial information

To enable the League to act as the disaster information centre National Societies shall immediately inform it of any major disaster occur ring within their country, including data on the extent of the damage an on the relief measures taken on the national level for assisting victims Even if the National Society does not envisage appealing for extema assistance, the League may, after having obtained clearance from th National Society concerned, send a representative to the spot to gather th information it needs. When due to circumstances it is not possible t obtain such prior clearance immediately, the League should spare n efforts to secure the required clearance in the shortest time possible.",

3. adopts the following new Article 20 B:

"Auditing accounts

The League/ICRC may, in certain exceptional circumstances, not be fully satisfied with the way in which resources for League/ICRC operations and programmes are managed and accounted for by either participating or operating Societies.
In such circumstances, the League/ICRC is authorized to entrust a qualified League/ICRC representative to look into the matter.
The National Society in question is requested to ensure that the League/ICRC representative, in consultation with the auditors of the Society, has access to such of the records of the Society as the League/ICRC representative considers necessary for the purpose of his task.".