Missing Persons: A Hidden Tragedy
People have gone missing as long as men have been fighting wars. The plight of people missing in armed conflict and the suffering of their families has been a consistent concern to the ICRC. This …
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Legal Measures and Mechanisms to Prevent Disappearances, to Establish the Fate of Missing Persons, and to Assist their Families
Report of the Second Universal Meeting of National Committees on International Humanitarian Law, March 19-21 2007. The issue of missing persons, in particular, has become a growing concern over the …
Cluster Munitions: Decades of Failure, Decades of Civilian Suffering
Cluster munitions have been a persistent problem for decades. These weapons have unique characteristics that make them a grave danger to civilians. These four fact sheets provide an overview of the …
Strengthening International Humanitarian Law Protecting Persons Deprived of their Liberty: Thematic Consultation of Government Experts on Conditions of Detention and Particularly Vulnerable Detainees
This report provides an account of the January 2014 thematic consultation of government experts on conditions of detention and particularly vulnerable detainees. The consultation was part of the …
The International Prisoners-of-War Agency: The ICRC in World War One
The ICRC established the International Prisoners of War Agency in Geneva on 21 August 1914. Its role was to restore contact between people separated by war – prisoners of war, civilian internees, and …
Minutes from Meetings of the International Prisoner-of-War Agency, 21 August 1914 to 11 November 1918
The annotated version of these minutes opens up the operations of the ICRC's International Prisoner-of-War Agency for the first time. In four years, the Agency gathered and distributed information on …
Expert Meeting: Humanitarian, Military, Technical and Legal Challenges of Cluster Munitions
This publication is a summary report of the ICRC Expert Meeting on the Humanitarian, Military, Technical and Legal Challenges of Cluster Munitions, held 18 to 20 April 2007 in Montreux, Switzerland. …
Domestic Normative Frameworks for the Protection of Health Care
This publication presents a number of recommendations for States – legislative measures and procedures in particular – to help them implement those aspects of international law that protect the …
Distinction: Protecting Civilians in Armed Conflict
The cornerstone of the 1977 Additional Protocols is the principle of distinction. This leaflet provides a concise overview of the requirements of all parties to an armed conflict to distinguish …
A Guide to the Legal Review of New Weapons, Means and Methods of Warfare
This Guide aims to assist States in establishing or improving procedures to determine the legality of new weapons, means and methods of warfare in accordance with Article 36 of Protocol I Additional …
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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.
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.