Red Cross Club: Taking Action

With just over a month of school completed, the Red Cross Club at Unionville High School is continuing their engagement through the International Humanitarian Law (IHL) Youth Action Campaign. The Red Cross Club works to show the reality of human rights today by helping with blood drives and offering services to health-related causes. Its focus is on spreading awareness about the IHL, requiring all countries to uplift human rights. The campaign is by the Red Cross' International Committee. International treaty law brings formal sets of standards for humanitarian law, for example the Geneva Conventions. There is also customary law, through which countries meet to regulate these standards and ensure they are violated.

Senior Anika Harris, the president of the Red Cross Club, narrated how each year has had a unique theme of how our students can bring more awareness to seemingly-known rights. This year, the movement is connecting their actions towards humanitarian rights with the theme of 'Journalism in Armed Conflict'. It is meant to "examine the role journalists play in documenting events in war zones", meaning they will look into how information comes to the average person from heavily conflicted areas of the world. It's also a study of the possible violations of human rights in certain places. Sharing the details that reach the club with the high school, as well as the rest of the district, makes more of an impact besides just a club that is dedicated to spreading it.

"Understanding humanitarian law and ethics is valuable to our school community because it fosters empathy, critical thinking, and promotes global awareness," said Harris. She shares how IHL isn't black and white as even in armed conflict it advocates for protection of human dignity, limiting suffering and giving students the ability to recognize actions and emotions that are given for granted. These can be supportive words during a hard time, or just reassurance in day-to-day life.

However, to understand the cause of IHL doesn't only come from present disagreements and wars, but more importantly the past of humanitarian rights in global events; even commonly known history can lay a foundation. Being able to understand all these aspects of the Red Cross Club's drive can cause a student, or anyone for that matter, to be aware and responsible, two important traits that bring positive experiences. Additionally, there are other features students can learn when being in the Club: law tension, human nature, ethics, and even the background of things we take for granted today. Everyday, IHL fights for humanity, and no battle won is ever insignificant. Their double edged sword of empathy and formidably cuts through negative conflict and brings awareness to human rights that need the light.