The Swiss Federal Council (the executive body of the Swiss Confederation) adopted a report last September to reduce federal spending of around 4.5 billion Swiss francs (almost the same sum in euros). Among the measures is the transfer of the supervision of the International Museum of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent (Micr), from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Ministry of Culture. But in this transfer its annual subsidy, which currently amounts to just over a million Swiss francs, must be reduced to 300,000 Swiss francs.
This decision, which will come into force in 2027, will create a structural deficit “Non -absorbable” which could lead to the closure of the institution, which lives thanks to subsidies up to 50 %, as well as to entrance tickets and private donations, according to Pascal Hufschmid, the museum director since 2019, reports The Dauphiné liberated.
The other major public contributor, the great Geneva council which provides 870,000 Swiss francs mobilizes and adopted a motion signed by 76 national advisers representing all the parties and all the linguistic regions of Switzerland, so that the Federal Council does not suppress neither does not modify the financial aid it grants the micr, and that everything is done so that the Geneva institution remains open.
Rumors have also circulated as to the relocation of the museum to Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates). A rumor qualified as “absurd” by Pascal Hufschmid: “The Red Cross museum tells a story born in Switzerland. It is a heritage of national importance, as evidenced by the protection of cultural goods ”he said on Swiss television.
Inaugurated in 1988, the International Museum of the Red Cross and Red Crescent welcomes some 120,000 visitors each year, making it one of the most visited museums in Switzerland. It relates the history of humanitarian action through a collection of around 30,000 objects and archive funds classified in the memory of the UNESCO world. It was in 1859, during the Battle of Solférino, that the founding act of the Red Cross took place. Witness of the battle, the Swiss citizen Henry Dunant improvises help and provides aid without discrimination to soldiers from both camps. In 1863, the international and permanent committee for rescue for military injuries were created (which gave birth to the Red Cross International Committee). In August 1864, the first Geneva Convention was concluded to protect the staff helping the wounded, who will display the Red Cross on a white background as a distinctive sign.