Pierre Krähenbühl

Who is Pierre Krähenbühl?

Pierre Krähenbühl is the Director of Operations at the International Committee of the Red Cross, a position he has held since 1 July 2002. He is responsible for the conduct, management and supervision of the ICRC’s activities in 80 countries and of its 12’000 staff worldwide.

Over the past decade he has thus directly overseen the ICRC response to consequences of armed conflicts in places like Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan, DR Congo, Libya, Somalia, Ivory Coast, Colombia and Syria, among others. He has also lead senior-level negotiations with a wide range of governments, armed forces and non-state armed groups in a number of crisis-affected regions, to secure access to populations caught up in the conflicts . He has also engaged in dialogue on humanitarian priorities in a range of countries such as the United States, China, Russia, Japan, Brazil, Australia, South Korea, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Norway, the UK, France, Germany and Sweden, as well as with institutions like the UN, EU, OIC and others.

In addition to the ICRC’s traditionally discrete diplomacy, Pierre Krähenbühl has been active in raising public awareness about the plight of populations at risk. He spoke repeatedly about situations of civilians affected by war in Afghanistan, Iraq, Colombia, Sri Lanka, etc . He is known for his public comments on the Abu Ghraib scandal in 2004.