For more than half a century, the Fundamental Principles of humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity and universality have underpinned the global humanitarian work …
by Dominik Stillhart, director of operations for the ICRC In a year that saw millions of lives torn apart by armed conflict and violence across the globe, indiscriminate attacks against civilians, …
The International Committee of the Red Cross, the Belgian Red Cross and the Network on Humanitarian Action (NOHA) based at the Catholic University of Louvain (UCL) are organizing a 2,5-day …
The Advanced IHL Learning Series are addressed to lecturers and trainers who wish to be abreast of the latest developments in international humanitarian law (IHL) and other related areas. The series …
Speech given by Christine Beerli, vice-president of the ICRC, at the UN Security Council debate on the protection of civilians. Mr President, Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, Thank you for …
The 1989-1997 civil war in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea left up to 20,000 people dead. Many of those who vanished at the outbreak of violence are still unaccounted for and their loved ones are left …
Sandra feels sick. She has just come out of a counselling session. Reliving it all has turned her stomach. Her daughter is eight months old and won't settle; she only quietens when her mother puts …
Giving birth in South Sudan is often dangerous and difficult. Medical care can be long distances away, forcing pregnant women to give birth at home or to travel on foot late in their pregnancy to a …
Lamine Follé is a 33-year-old soldier now serving with the 3rd company of the Malian National Guard. But in 2012 he was captured by an armed group during fighting in the northern part of the country. …
In Colombia there are registers listing some 78,000 missing persons. But we'll never know how many there really are. Many are buried in unmarked graves (bearing the letters 'NN') in hundreds of …
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Created in 1863, the ICRC library, alongside the ICRC archives, provides an indispensable documentary reference on the organization itself and international humanitarian law.
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 international humanitarian law consists of rules that come from "a general practice accepted as law" and that exist independent of treaty law.
