Srebrenica 20 years on: Let us not forget
By Dominik Stillhart, director of operations There is something quietly dreadful about cemeteries in which all the graves are uniform. Absence of variety among the tombstones sends a message to the …
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Informal Meeting on Strengthening Compliance with International Humanitarian Law, Geneva, 13 July 2012
Informal Meeting on strengthening compliance with International Humanitarian Law Friday, 13 July 2012, Geneva, Switzerland Guidance Document International Humanitarian Law (IHL) is a set of rules …
Jordan: Five years into the Syrian crisis: No solution in sight
With no let-up in the crisis, people continue to seek safety by crossing from Syria to Jordan. The majority enter Jordan through the country's north-eastern border area, where the scorching summer …
Rwanda / Burundi: Free phone calls help refugees stay in touch
A surge in arrivals of Burundian refugees in reception centres near the Rwanda-Burundi border prompted the Rwandan government in April to open a new refugee camp in Mahama, Eastern Province. A major …
Gaza: Transforming fields of destruction into fertile farming ground
ICRC Agronomist, David Kuhn Von Burgdorff, paints a vivid picture of the devastation caused by the conflict in Gaza on its agricultural land and farming …
ICRC visits to detainees. The how, the what and the why.
The ICRC visits hundreds of thousands of detainees all over the world. Year in, year out. But what happens during a "detention visit"? And why do we visit detainees anyway? This video gives a peek …
Somalia: Ushering in Ramadan in detention
The ICRC in Somalia marked this year's Ramadan by distributing food and volumes of the Quran to detention centres in Somalia. Among the food items distributed were palm dates, meat, sugar, tea leaves …
Mandela Day: Remembering his words for the ICRC
Not only in his autobiography, but also through his speeches and other public interaction, Nelson Mandela always spoke about the importance of the work carried out by the ICRC, particularly with …
Mandela Day: Improving the lives of detainees
Nelson Mandela, the anti-apartheid leader who became South Africa's first black President, is commemorated every year on 18 July, his birthday, also known as Nelson Mandela International Day. Mr …
South Sudan: Facts and figures June 2015 - Scaling up operations to meet growing needs
A summary of the ICRC's activities in South Sudan since the beginning of the emergency in mid-December 2013 to the end of May 2015. This month's theme: Scaling up operations to meet growing needs …
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Customary international humanitarian law consists of rules that come from "a general practice accepted as law" and that exist independent of treaty law.