Sydney Peace Prize Honours International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement
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The Sydney Peace Foundation has awarded the 2024 Sydney Peace Prize to the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, acknowledging a year in which the vital services provided by this organisation has been brought into stark relief.
The movement is comprised of 191 National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, whose cumulative 16 million volunteers have sought to provide aid, administer medical care, ease hunger, and bring comfort to people in war and disaster zones around the world.
Executive Director of International Programs for Australian Red Cross is Alex Mathieson. He has been with the organisation for three years and is at the administrative frontline of the Australian Red Cross’s overseas projects. However, Mathieson’s personal resume includes 30 years in the humanitarian sector, with frontline experience in major crisis zones around the globe.
Beginning as an assistant in an Oxfam shop, Mathieson worked his way up into head office. From there, he was deployed to Central Africa, and then spent around 12 years being deployed for short and protracted periods to various countries.
“I never really plotted a career path, but took opportunities and got to do some amazing work, in difficult contexts but with amazing people,” says Mathieson.
After a brief reprieve from the sector, Mathieson returned to humanitarian work when he joined the Australian Red Cross. As part of his role, he liaises with International Red Cross Red Crescent organisations across 100 countries to assess various needs during natural disasters, crises, and conflicts. This includes overseeing a roster of skilled personnel with expertise in technology, medicine, mechanics and many other disciplines. In the last year, the Australian Red Cross has arranged for 13 medical staff to be deployed to Gaza.
The list is long and everyone is given full training in security and necessary protocols, but it’s hard to imagine too many people would readily give up a comfortable life in a safe first world country to go to a dangerous, lawless war zone. Not so, says Mathieson.
“At the end of the day, the people that get on the rosters are experienced humanitarian personnel who want to apply their skills to support people facing suffering and risk, so they’re highly motivated.”
Many people complete their deployment and indicate they will readily return if needed. They not only face real risk to their personal welfare, but they are required to remain impartial and neutral in situations where that can be extremely challenging.
“I see the [Sydney Peace Prize] as being for them predominantly, because they’re the ones doing the work and having to uphold those principles in contexts where they’re personally affected as well, and that’s not easy,” says Mathieson.
He also finds the need to remain neutral and impartial one of the most challenging aspects of his work, especially with many international situations becoming more and more politicised, and in a world where social media can amplify a seemingly innocuous comment and broadcast it instantly.
However, the rewards of being part of the International Red Cross Red Crescent far outweigh the challenges: the ability to mobilise groups of volunteers almost instantly wherever needed. When he first started at the Red Cross, Mathieson was simultaneously dealing with the conflict in Ukraine and floods in Lismore.
“I’ve seen that everyday since I’ve been in this job, that unique power of the humanitarian network that is the Red Cross and Red Crescent movement.”
Sydney Peace Prize 2024 to be awarded Nov 18 at Sydney Town Hall
The Sydney Peace Prize will be officially awarded tonight at a lecture at Sydney Town Hall. The evening will include firsthand accounts from Jagan Chapagain, CEO and Secretary General of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, alongside Mike Denison who has recently returned from Red Cross operations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
Benjamin Law, author and journalist, will play host, and the line-up of speakers includes: the Lord Mayor of Sydney Clover Moore, Professor Emily Crawford from the University of Sydney’s International Humanitarian Law program, and Mohamed Duar from the Sydney Peace Foundation Council and Amnesty International Australia.
The evening will also feature performances from the NSW Public Schools Aboriginal Dance Company and the enchanting Anieszka, a talented Australian/Mauritian singer.
Monday November 18, 6:30pm
Sydney Town Hall, George St, Sydney
https://events.humanitix.com/2024-sydney-peace-prize-award-ceremony-and-lecture
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