© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Emblem of the ICRC is seen throughout the press convention of Robert Mardini, Director-Basic of the Worldwide Committee of the Crimson Cross (ICRC) in Geneva, Switzerland, September 11, 2023. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photograph
By Emma Farge
GENEVA (Reuters) – The Worldwide Federation of Crimson Cross and Crimson Crescent Societies elected a U.S. candidate on Monday as its new president after an acrimonious assembly that just about noticed the vote postponed amid an issue involving a rival candidate.
Kate Forbes, an present IFRC board member, grew to become the second lady to ever maintain the highest job on the world’s largest humanitarian community after two rounds of votes.
“Now is the time to lean into our fundamental principles to deliver on our mission and make communities stronger,” she said, vowing to address the impacts of climate change, geopolitical tensions and health emergencies.
Forbes who began working with the IFRC four decades ago, as a local volunteer at the Phoenix, Arizona, branch of the American Red Cross will replace outgoing chief Francesco Rocca who is also president of Italy’s Lazio region.
Rocca announced his departure after his regional government pulled its support from an annual LGBT parade, drawing criticism from some rights activists and opposition politicians.
He said at the time in a letter to the IFRC that his decision to leave was a “very tough one” that was “pushed by my want to guard our organisation and the individuals we serve”.
Monday’s extraordinary Basic Meeting assembly in Geneva to decide on his successor was marked by heavy sparring between Rocca and representatives of the nationwide organisations after he introduced a delay to voting.
Rocca cited allegations of sexual harassment that had emerged towards one in every of Forbes’ rival candidates as being the explanation for the delay, however in the long run the vote was not postponed.
Reuters isn’t naming the candidate in query given reporting restrictions below Swiss privateness legal guidelines, which prohibit figuring out individuals accused of sure wrongdoing. Within the assembly, the candidate contested the allegations which weren’t defined intimately.
The IFRC president is a volunteer place and oversees the community that unites 191 organisations working throughout and after disasters and wars, such because the Palestine Crimson Crescent Society which has ambulance crews in besieged Gaza. The opposite candidates had been from Georgia, Kenya and Egypt.
