Peter Maurer

Humanitarian action cannot be held hostage to political ends.

— Peter Maurer

As responsible politicians, you have to manage migration.

— Peter Maurer

Suffering does not change its face.

— Peter Maurer

We demonize our enemies at our own peril.

— Peter Maurer

Can you really send back people to where they are fleeing from?

— Peter Maurer

Even in war, everyone deserves to be treated humanely.

— Peter Maurer

The sad fact is that horrendous human conflict is nothing new.

— Peter Maurer

Conflicts are not temporary interruptions: they are structural, socio-economic catastrophes, and funding must be allocated accordingly.

— Peter Maurer

If you back out of a convention... you can't dodge your obligation. Torture is still not acceptable.

— Peter Maurer

The Fourth Industrial Revolution does not just entail risks: it also brings solutions to humanitarian problems.

— Peter Maurer

Short-termism is no longer an option. We have to envisage humanitarian action with a medium- and long-term perspective.

— Peter Maurer

Wars are getting longer, they are more complex, and the humanitarian need is great.

— Peter Maurer

The principal cause of suffering during humanitarian crises is insufficient respect of applicable rules of international humanitarian law.

— Peter Maurer

Each day that passes without kids being able to go to school is an enormous burden on the future.

— Peter Maurer

Urbanisation, poverty, youth unemployment are leading to violence-prone cities.

— Peter Maurer

Until the last nuclear weapon is eliminated, more must also be done to reduce the risk of a detonation. Nuclear-armed states should…

— Peter Maurer

Humanitarian assistance, once conceived as a short-term relief effort, is increasingly the only substitute for long-term development work in protracted armed conflicts.

— Peter Maurer

Conflicts are increasingly causing devastation in densely populated urban centres rather than open battlefields, creating a host of new problems through the…

— Peter Maurer

Self-reliance is not always possible; we have to acknowledge that there are situations of dramatic crisis which will force us to substitute…

— Peter Maurer

What the hell is happening to the world when those who were at the origin of... international humanitarian law start questioning in…

— Peter Maurer

The International Committee of the Red Cross visits roughly half a million detainees in nearly 100 countries each year. It's our job…

— Peter Maurer

While conflicts have expanded and deepened and transformed, actors have transformed, and humanitarian assistance is transforming. Protection work is transforming and taking…

— Peter Maurer

We cannot guarantee that a humanitarian catastrophe of the extent of the Holocaust will not happen again. On the contrary, we witness…

— Peter Maurer

The ICRC did not see Nazi Germany for what it was. Instead, the organization maintained the illusion that the Third Reich was…

— Peter Maurer

Cities tend to be representations of societies: diversity and inequality find their extremes in urban settings. Yet, when war is added onto…

— Peter Maurer

In our fibre-optic world of tweets and tablets, we are more conscious of the world around us. The technicolour violence and humanitarian…

— Peter Maurer

The relatively unpredictable flow of funds to humanitarian organizations, and the bureaucratic strings often attached to them, can have a highly negative…

— Peter Maurer

Since 1989, public alarm at the prospect of atomic Armageddon has quietened, but the number of nuclear-armed states has increased, arsenals are…

— Peter Maurer

I think we are challenged in how we define humanitarian action today and how we relate to long-term needs. We are also…

— Peter Maurer

Not only does disability impact individual health and well-being, it also leads to social and economic exclusion.

— Peter Maurer

The creative capacity of the private sector should be harnessed to develop new and more effective ways to deliver humanitarian solutions.

— Peter Maurer

Local businesses and communities must be included from the very start in developing solutions to fragility, violence, and conflict.

— Peter Maurer

If private-sector capital can be harnessed for social good, the potential to scale humanitarian solutions is vast.

— Peter Maurer

The abuse of civilians and combatants has existed since the dawn of time.

— Peter Maurer

We need to understand that the Geneva Conventions are not just some historical documents born of another time, created for another purpose.

— Peter Maurer

Ensuring the respect of international humanitarian law and principles is one of the key areas necessary to establish accountability chains.

— Peter Maurer

The discourse of sovereignty is a relative one when a crisis has become a global crisis.

— Peter Maurer

It has always been clear that any use of nuclear weapons would have catastrophic humanitarian consequences.

— Peter Maurer

We live in an environment in which connectivity and cyberspace are transforming all workplaces, including the humanitarian workplace.

— Peter Maurer

Concrete steps are needed to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in military plans, doctrines, and policies.

— Peter Maurer