International legal personality - an assessment of the International Committee of the Red Cross and its legal status

Abstract

The topic to be addressed in the thesis is to what extent the International Committee of the Red Cross (hereafter ICRC) possesses international legal personality. The thesis will primarily focus on two main issues. The first issue concerns the question of whether the ICRC has international legal personality and possible grounds for such an acquisition. The second issue relates to the legal consequences of an attribution of the legal status to the ICRC. The thesis is divided into five parts. The structure of the thesis is as follows. Part two provides a brief overview of ICRC. The purpose is to place the organization in the context of international law. In order to explain ICRC s legal status in the international community, it is natural and appropriate to initially briefly portray the background of the ICRC and its historical basis. The section will affect the reseach question it as it contains a presentation of the organization s mission and role in the international community which in turn will have significance for the question of international legal personality. In the third part, the thesis provides a framework of the concept of legal personality in terms of definition, scope and the consequences of the attribution. In order to evaluate whether ICRC possesses international legal personality, the thesis will first address the concept in regards to international organizations as such. The main focus of the thesis will be on part four. In this part, the thesis applies the legal doctrine of international legal personality to ICRC, and also covers the consequences of a possible attribution of international legal personality. The fifth and final part will contain a possible conclusion on the overall issue.