History
In January 1990 during an address to the Global Forum on Environment and Development for Survival, President Mikhail Gorbachev (the former President of the USSR) brought up the idea for an organisation that would apply the medical emergency response model of the International Committee of the Red Cross to ecological issues and expedite solutions to environmental problems that transcend national boundaries.
Developing this idea, delegates at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro (June 1992), approached Mikhail Gorbachev urging him to create and launch such an organisation. Meanwhile the Swiss Parliamentarian Roland Wiederkehr founded the 'World Green Cross' with the same objective. The two organisations merged in 1993 to form Green Cross International (GCI).
GCI was then formally launched in Kyoto on 18 April 1993. Upon the invitation of Mikhail Gorbachev, many renowned figures joined its Board of Directors and its Honorary Board.
The first set of National Organizations formally joined GCI in The Hague, in the spring of 1994. These included:
- Japan (President Shoo Iwasaki);
- Netherlands (President Awraham Soetendorp);
- Russian Federation (President Nikita Moiseev);
- Switzerland (President Ronald Hess);
- United States (President Diane Meyer Simon).
To date, Green Cross International is represented in 31 countries around the world. National offices are located in Argentina, Australia, Belarus, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Canada, Côte d'Ivoire, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Ghana, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Korea, Netherlands, Pakistan, Poland, Romania, Russia, Spain, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and the USA.
Green Cross International has a general consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations and with UNESCO. It is also an observer organisation with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and has regular cooperation with UNEP, UN-OCHA and UN-HABITAT as well as other international organisations.
Read more about this topic: Green Cross International
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