Speakers included Nicole Martins-Maag, head of International Committee of the Red Cross’s (ICRC) Archives, Library & Law & Policy Outreach and Christian Vogg, newly appointed Head of General Archives who presented on the ambitious digital transformation journey the organization started to safeguard its archives.

The session outlined the ICRC’s efforts to safeguard and democratize access to its historical archives — a crucial repository documenting humanitarian action since 1863. 

At the heart of this initiative lies a comprehensive “pipeline” to digitize over 50 million pages of historical records while introducing “archiving-by-design” principles across 500+ digital business applications. Started in 2024 and going beyond 2027, the organization is embarking on a journey from fragmented analogue workflows to an end-to-end digital archiving ecosystem, ensuring that future generations can access humanitarian data safely and meaningfully.

The speakers shared on challenges, such as governance, infrastructure, digital literacy, and the balance between human and machine reliability. Yet, the benefits are clear: preserving and building world memory, democratizing access, and empowering digital humanities research. 

This inaugural session of the fall semester of 2025 was a great reminder of the central role the Centre plays as a convener between different archives and digitization projects, exploring and bringing the long history of International Geneva into the digital future.