This seminar paper is about the Cannes Medical Conference of April 1919 and its long-lasting impact on the humanitarian space. 

In the aftermath of the First World War, as the world order was being redesigned, this conference served to shift the Red Cross movement towards peacetime and public health work. The paper draws on Dr Romain Fathi's newest book that examines the origins, course and consequences of the Cannes Medical Conference, and its wider legacy within the Red Cross movement: a legacy which is very significant yet almost completely undocumented. 

Dr Fathi's evidence that this medical conference was a watershed moment that served to pivot the Red Cross movement across the world from war and conflict-related activities to peacetime programs such as relief, disease and disaster management. The Red Cross movement is one of the largest humanitarian organisations in the world, and initially, it aimed to alleviate the suffering of people on the battlefield. In 1919, however, a new Red Cross organisation was created in Paris: the League of Red Cross Societies (LRCS) to considerably expand Red Cross work around the world. The Cannes Medical Conference was the catalyst for the creation of the LRCS. Understanding this conference is therefore paramount to understanding why and how the LRCS was created, how it was imagined, and what its functions were. 

The LRCS still exists today, known as the International Federation of the Red Cross: it is the largest humanitarian organisation in the world, with 191 national Red Cross societies as its members, and it is based in Geneva.

Dr Romain Fathi is Senior Lecturer at the School of History at The Australian National University and an Affiliated Researcher to the Centre for History of Sciences Po (CHSP).