Rome (NEV), April 30, 2018 – “His name has been assigned to streets and squares all over the world, but in reality very little is known about the life of the Red Cross founder”, says Gerard A. Jäger, Swiss author of a recent biography entitled “Henry Dunant: l’homme qui inventa le droit humanitaire” (Henry Dunant, the man who invented humanitarian law).
In 2009 also the Protestant Publishing house “La Claudiana” edited a book by the Waldensian pastor Franco Gianpiccoli, dedicated to the ‘inventor’ of the humanitarian law. “The sun of the 25th illuminated one of the most horrible sight that could be imagined”, writes the author recalling the battle of Solferino (June 24, 1859) which, for the Swiss humanist, entrepreneur and philanthropist, was a crucial event that induced him to work for the creation of a permanent and neutral organization for the war-wounded people.
Dunant succeeded in giving life to the International Committee of the Red Cross and in 1901 he won the first Nobel Peace Price.
The City of Florence, at the request of the local Committee of the Italian Red Cross (CRI), decided to name a garden after the Swiss citizen Henry Dunant: Along the Santa Rosa Walls, at the crossing of Lungarno Soderini, with Lungarno Santa Rosa.
At the inauguration of the garden a small representation of the Swiss community will attend, invited by the Honorary Consul of the Swiss Confederation in Florence, Edgar Kraft, the president of the Red Cross Committee and the city mayor, Dario Nardella.
The event is scheduled for May 8th at 1 PM, symbolic date for the celebrations of the World Day of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent, and on the 190th anniversary of the birth of Henry Dunant.
