Six months after learning of the news in the press without prior consultation, Pascal Hufschmid still doesn't know whether to remain more disgusted than dismayed. "How can Switzerland, which rightly presents itself as the guardian of international humanitarian law, with Geneva as the world's humanitarian capital, fail to realize the enormous symbolic value of this institution, especially in such troubled times as today?" said the director of the International Museum of the Red Cross (MICR), which has just lost a quarter of its funding.

Located in Geneva's international organizations district, in the same complex as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), to which it is only indirectly related, this private-law institution is facing a major crisis after the federal government in Bern decided to cut its subsidy. Since 1991, the museum had received a direct annual subsidy of 1.1 million Swiss francs (1.14 million euros) from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, equivalent to a quarter of its operating budget.

In September 2024, as part of a budget-cutting plan that also affects development aid, the Swiss authorities decided to transfer the supervision of the MICR to the Federal Office of Culture, which awards its grants through competitions, with much lower amounts. "In the best-case scenario, we'd get 300,000 francs, not enough to cover the loss of the subsidy we've received so far," said Hufschmid, according to whom "the museum is in mortal danger from the beginning of 2027 if [they] don't manage to find the difference as soon as possible, but this is not a time for spontaneous generosity."

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