The ICRC and IRCS, both member of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, have developed strong partnership in Iran and work closely together in achieving common humanitarian goals based on the Fundamental Principles of the Movement. A wide range of the ICRC’s programs in Iran are carried out in partnership with the IRCS which are defined in a five-year Partnership Framework Agreement including:

  • Physical Rehabilitation
  • Mine Action (Risk Awareness and Safe Behavior; RASB) & chemical biological radiological nuclear(CBRN)
  • Promotion of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and Humanitarian Values
  • Migration
  • Communication
  • Protection of Family Links (PFL)
  • Health and Health Care in Danger

Following the Covid-19 pandemic and later the influx of Afghan migrants into the neighboring countries in 2021, the ICRC significantly increased its financial and technical support to the IRCS to scale up their Covid preventive measures, including vaccination for migrants and host communities, as well as covering basic needs of Afghan migrants.

Since 2014, the ICRC together with the IRCS and Tehran School of Public Health have organized 6 rounds of the Health Emergencies in Large Populations (H.E.L.P.) course in Iran. The H.E.L.P. course is an eleven-day multidisciplinary training course for managing humanitarian operations in disasters, conflicts, and other crises. A variety of subjects are covered in the course from humanitarian principles, ethics, International Humanitarian Law, Protection to Epidemiology, communicable and non-communicable diseases, nutrition, and public health engineering. More than 150 Iranian and foreign participants have so far attended this course in Iran.

The ICRC also have close collaboration with the IFRC, the other member of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement in Iran, to better coordinate their support to the IRCS especially in the areas of migration, community engagement & accountability, and climate change to maximize the Movement`s collective impact.

The two partners also work with a local NGO in a tripartite project to provide Primary Health and Physical Rehabilitation services as well as hygiene and First Aid education to vulnerable populations in the suburbs of Mashhad, Khorasan Razavi Province.

The 100 years ceremony of IRCS, DG Mardini speech, Tehran, 2022

Help course, Tehran, 2018

Introduction ceremony of the new head of IRCS, Mr. Koulivand by ICRC head of delegation,Tehran, 2022

Movement staff helping a patient in Haiti, 2010