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 …
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 …
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 …
The Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction, known informally as the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, …
Within the area of mother and childcare, antenatal care plays a key role in reducing death, disease and suffering among women, whose vulnerability is always exacerbated by armed conflict and poor …
This brochure highlights the risks posed by unexploded and abandoned ordnance in war-affected countries, and summarizes the Protocol on Explosive Remnants of War, a treaty adopted by States in 2003 …
At the end of 2016 there were more than 40 million internally displaced people worldwide. They suffer extreme hardship as displacement disrupts their lives and livelihoods and exposes them to a host …
Revised and updated version! Children associated with armed forces or groups often see, suffer and perpetrate atrocities. Both the brochure and the ICRC's work with children affected by conflict and …
The increased risk that civilians face due to the current inadequate controls on arms availability, combined with the frequent use of weapons in violation of international humanitarian law are …
This article explains the rationale behind a study on customary international humanitarian law recently undertaken by the ICRC at the request of the International Conference of the Red Cross and Red …
This publication contains the key documents, reports, summaries and outcomes of the International Conference of Governmental and Non-Governmental Experts and the 28th International Conference of the …
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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.