Overview of the International Medical Corps

International Medical Corps

Founded in 1984 by Dr. Robert Simon, International Medical Corps is a global, non-secular, not for profit, humanitarian organization based out of Santa Monica, California. A signatory of the Code of Conduct of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, IMC operates according to the principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and operational independence. In accordance with the principle of humanity, IMC has pledged to address human suffering wherever it may be found, to protect the life, health and respect of humans beings; neutrality means that the organization does not take side or take part in political, racial, religious or ideological conflict. The concept of impartiality guides the International Medical Corps to distribute aid on the basis of need alone, prioritizing the most urgent cases with a disregard for nationality, race, gender, religious belief, class or political viewpoint. Their operational independence allows the IMC to work completely independently from the political, economic, military or any other object that donors may have, making the IMC a dunantist organization. The mission of the International Medical Corp “is to improve the quality of life through health interventions and related activities that build local capacity in underserved communities worldwide.” IMC operates with the intention of rehabilitating “devastated health care systems [to help] bring them back to self-reliance.”

In 1979 the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan and during the occupation all but 200 of the countries 1,500 doctors were executed, imprisoned or exiled. All relief and humanitarian organizations were sent out of Afghanistan. This meant that those who were ill or injured had nowhe...

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...he programs that are put in place by the IMC are a means to an end; they are addressing what the IMC believes to be the root cause of the problem rather than solely addressing the immediate needs of the communities in distress. This follows in the idea of instrumental rationality (Barnett et al. 2008). The International Medical Corps looks to stop humanitarian crisis from happening in the future and this is represented in the nature of the focuses of their programs as well as their mission statement. Much of the work done by the International Medical Corps focuses on building health care systems for underserved communities that result in an improvement in the overall quality of life in those communities.

Works Cited

Barnett, Michael, and Thomas G. Weiss. Humanitarianism in Question: Politics, Power, Ethics. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 2008.