A unique non-state actor: the International Committee of the Red Cross

Non-state actors play an increasingly important role in international law. Amongst them, the International Committee of the Red Cross deserves the closest scrutiny. The paper critically discusses the controversial question of the international legal personality of the Committee and attempts to go beyond the rigid approach based on the attribution or non-attribution of international personality. From this perspective, it explains the performance by the Committee of functions traditionally reserved to States in terms of a mandate conferred on it by a large number of States through the relevant international treaties and in particular the 1949 Geneva Conventions and 1977 Additional Protocols.