What is IHL?
Extract from ICRC publication " International humanitarian law: answers to your questions " International humanitarian law (IHL) regulates relations between States, international organizations and …
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South Africa: 15th Annual Regional Seminar on International Humanitarian Law - Summary Report
15th Annual Regional Seminar on International Humanitarian Law 18 – 21 August 2015 OR Tambo Building, Pretoria Representatives from 16 Southern African countries gathered in South Africa from 18 to …
Nepal: Report highlights pressing issues faced by families of the missing
The new report, Civil legal issues related to the families of the missing in Nepal , commissioned by the ICRC, highlights the legal and administrative issues faced by the families of the missing. The …
Missing persons in Lebanon: Forensics training workshop
Many people have gone missing during conflict and violence in Lebanon. Proper anthropological and archaeological analyses of their human remains is an essential step for the identification. Lebanese …
Lake Chad crisis: Facts and figures, January - September 2015
In 2015, the ICRC has stepped up its efforts to help some of the many hundreds of thousands of people affected by the Lake Chad conflict who lack even the basic necessities of life. We are building …
Iraq: Disabled and displaced
Rusul, a seven-year-old girl from Ramadi, has been paralyzed since shortly after birth owing to faulty surgery. The intervention, near her spine, failed to cure a serious skin infection and instead …
National implementation of IHL: Ratification kits
The ICRC's Advisory Service proposes model instruments for the ratification of or accession to international humanitarian law treaties by States. 1 - Weapons Anti-personnel mines 1997 Convention on …
The applicability of IHL to terrorism and counterterrorism
Recent years have again seen the rise of non-State armed groups resorting to acts of terrorism, and the subsequent rallying of a number of other non-State armed groups around them. States and the …
National implementation of IHL: Model laws,Guiding principles and Practical advice
With a view to facilitating implementation of the rules of international humanitarian law at the national level, the ICRC’s Advisory Service on International Humanitarian Law proposes model laws / …
Black Hawk Down: Former US POW recalls ICRC visit
This weekend marks the 22nd anniversary of the "Battle of Mogadishu," during which an American special operations team was sent into the Somali capital on 3 October 1993 to arrest two top lieutenants …
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ICRC library
Created in 1863, the ICRC library, alongside the ICRC archives, provides an indispensable documentary reference on the organization itself and international humanitarian law.
IHL treaties
International humanitarian law is based on a number of treaties, in particular the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocols, and a series of other instruments.
Customary IHL
Customary international humanitarian law consists of rules that come from "a general practice accepted as law" and that exist independent of treaty law.