Speech given by Peter Maurer, President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, at the World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul, Turkey. Excellencies, Ladies and gentlemen, We have heard the …
The seven "Fundamental Principles of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement" are the expression of a set of values and experiences distilled from over a century and a half of …
Interview with the head of the ICRC's arms unit, Kathleen Lawand, on the humanitarian consequences and legal implications of using explosive weapons in populated areas. She emphasizes the need for …
The unresolved issue of missing persons continues to burden Georgian and Abkhaz families and society many years after the end of the 1992–1993 armed conflict in Abkhazia. ICRC records show there are …
There have always been wars. But the conflict in Yemen is receiving precious little attention right now. 6,000 people have died in the last 14 months, half of them civilians. Belgian Antoine Grand …
Addis Ababa (ICRC) - The ICRC delegation to the African Union (AU) held a roundtable on 26-27 May on the obligation to ensure respect of international humanitarian law in multinational operations in …
How to regulate private military and security companies (PMSCs) was the subject of a recent meeting in Moscow organized jointly by the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, …
Too often, explosive weapons that have wide-area effects are used in populated areas, with devastating effects on civilians and civilian infrastructure. Explosive weapons use the detonation of a …
On 21 April 2016, the ICRC hosted a panel at the Humanitarium to discuss whether adherence to international humanitarian law (IHL) has been eroding in today's armed conflicts and if so, how to …
We have just updated the customary IHL database to include additional practice from Chad , Côte d'Ivoire , Cuba , the Russian Federation and Viet Nam . The database contains: the 161 rules 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.
