International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent

Type:	Non-Profit
Founded:	1919
Website:	icrc.org

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent, or IFRC, founded in 1919, is the world's largest humanitarian network, with offshoots in nearly every country in the world. It is comprised of 187 member Red Cross and Red Cross National Societies, a secretariat in Geneva, and more than 60 delegations around the world. Though the Red Cross is the primary organization, the Red Crescent is used in place of the Red Cross in some Islamic countries. The vision of the organization is stated as follows: "To inspire, encourage, facilitate and promote at all times all forms of humanitarian activities by National Societies, with a view to preventing and alleviating human suffering, and thereby contributing to the maintenance and promotion of human dignity and peace in the world."

The organization spearheads disaster relief and develops their National Societies through four primary focal points: promoting humanitarian values, providing disaster response, encouraging disaster preparedness, and offering heath and community care.

They are guided by a framework called Strategy 2020, which aims for "saving lives" and "changing minds". It builds off provisions from the previous Strategy 2010 document, and was established by IFRC's General Assembly.

IFRC & ICANN

At ICANN 43 in Costa Rica, the GNSO Council was slated to vote on a broadly-supported resolution that gave special trademark protections to the International Olympic Committee, and IFRC. Its approval which would have allowed for these organizations to apply for new gTLDs such as .olympic and .redcross and also prevent other organizations from applying for confusingly similar string, but its vote was delayed due to the nonapproval of the Non-Commercial Stakeholders Group constituency group, who argued that special protections for the aforementioned organizations should not be allowed and that the policies go against ICANN's tendency to be grow policies from community roots. They argued that the normal process was "circumvented" and that the International Olympic Committee and Red Cross went directly to national governments.

The delay caused a scenario wherein the International Olympic Committee and Red Cross may have been prevented from applying for new gTLDs until the second application round, possibly years later, but in March 2012, a new GNSO vote was scheduled due to the previous deferral.The resolution won by just one vote after six NCSG council members abstained, citing the same reasons as before. Even with the approval of the GNSO Council, the policy can only become law if approved by the ICANN Board and implemented by the staff via the Applicant Guidebook.

Protections at the top-level for the IOC and Red Cross were approved by the ICANN Board in November, 2012. The Board also approved a more temporary measure approving terms associated with the organizations at the second-level across new gTLDs. It was announced that more firm plans to protect IGOs at the second level across all New gTLDs are anticipated.

Generic Names Supporting Organization. Develops and recommends to the Board substantive policies relating to generic top-level domains and other responsibilities set forth in the Bylaws (ICANN Bylaws).

Non-Commercial Stakeholder Group. Represents the full range of non-commercial entities of the Internet (ICANN Bylaws). Not to be confused with the At-Large Advisory Committee.