The Additional Protocols at 40
Signature of the AP to the GCs of 12 August 1949 / LEBLANC, GÉRARD On 8 June 2017, the Protocols additional to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 will turn 40. To mark this anniversary, the ICRC will …
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Iraq, Syria and Yemen: Five times more civilians die in city offensives, new report finds
14-06-2017 A new ICRC report launched today reveals five times more civilians die in offensives carried out in cities than in other battles. The report, called 'I Saw My City Die', also found that …
War in Syria: Latest from the front line
The Syrian war has entered its seventh year. It remains the largest and most complex humanitarian crisis in the world. People's needs on the ground are rising sharply throughout the country. …
Scarred for life: War in Mosul draws to a brutal end
On 10 July, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi declared victory in Mosul, bringing about the end of a military operation that began in October 2016. While the fighting may be over, massive …
How does law protect in war? (Serbo-Croatian)
Cases, documents and teaching materials on contemporary practice in international humanitarian law. A selection of nearly three hundred case studies provides university professors, practitioners and …
Internally displaced people must be protected from the effects of war
21-09-2017 (New York) – At a UN General Assembly High-Level event on Syria, ICRC President Peter Maurer urged for the protection of Syrian civilians trapped by violence and internally displaced by …
Exhibition on urban warfare and its impact on the civilian population
This exhibition drew on video and audio recordings from the ICRC's archives dating as far back as 1922 to show the staggering toll that wars have taken on cities and the people living in them. But it …
IHL and Persons with Disabilities
International humanitarian law (IHL) is a set of rules that, in times of armed conflict, seeks – for humanitarian reasons – to protect persons who are not, or are no longer directly participating in …
Amnesties and IHL: Purpose and Scope
States party to the 1949 Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocol I of 1977 have an obligation to take measures necessary to suppress all acts contrary to their provisions. Moreover, States must …
Nigeria: “Life will never be as it used to be before”
By William Davies, Michika, Nigeria The only businesses open in the village of Gulak are a barber and a tailor. On the ground outside, two men sort through a pile of peanuts, two young girls walk …
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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.