Civil protection is an organization dedicated to ensuring the immediate well-being of citizens, especially those that have been threatened by a catastrophe. Most of them operate with the support of the government agency in charge and have been established in a large number of countries. It is quite common to find a civil defense headquarters in an area that may be vulnerable to armed conflict or natural disasters. It was born as part of the new norms established in the Geneva Treaty or the Geneva Conventions, in which the humanitarian aspect is finally discussed.
Specifically, it was adopted on August 12, 1949, as part of Protocol 1, “Protection of the victims of international armed conflicts”, its main function being to support the work provided by the Red Cross. Once the role that the body would play had been discussed, a contest was organized in which several countries would design an apolitical, neutral and secular logo. The winner was Israel, with the Star of David inside a circle of colored orange and, in turn, within a square yellow; this was modified according to the rules, becoming a blue triangle inside an orange circle, with a yellow square in the background.
Currently, civil protection is in charge of educating the population about the risks they run, as a form of prevention, in addition to alerting and providing a fast and effective service, in the event of an emergency. Basically, this is classified into three phases in Red Cross History: the prevention phase (before the disaster), the emergency phase (during the disaster) and the reconstruction phase (after the disaster is over).
