Red Cross proposes Red Shield

An international conference is trying to resolve a fifty-year-old argument about whether emblems other than the Red Cross or Red Crescent should be permitted under the Geneva conventions.

Delegates from sixteen countries are meeting in Geneva to decide, in particular, whether the Israeli Red Shield of David should be recognised, along with the double sign of Cross and Crescent used by Kazakhstan and Eritrea.

The proposal, if accepted, would enable all three countries to become full members of the International Red Cross movement which includes the Red Crescent.

However, there would also have to be amendments to the Geneva conventions -- a process which the BBC diplomatic correspondent says could go on till the end of the year.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service