"My heart is melting when I think I am going to see my son-in-law for the first time in six years." Jamal Sardar, Afghanistan Jamal Sardar recently travelled to Pul-i-Charkhi prison, Afghanistan, …
A stray bullet killed Um Ali's daughter as they fled fighting in Salahuddin. Now, in al Takia camp in Baghdad, she struggles to cope with both her grief and the hardships of life as a displaced …
Speech given by Christine Beerli, vice-president of the ICRC, at the UN Security Council debate on the protection of civilians. Mr President, Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, Thank you for …
The 1989-1997 civil war in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea left up to 20,000 people dead. Many of those who vanished at the outbreak of violence are still unaccounted for and their loved ones are left …
After a young migrant from Sudan died of illness while crossing the Mediterranean, cooperation between the Italian Red Cross and the ICRC ensured that his family could rapidly identify the body and …
Sandra feels sick. She has just come out of a counselling session. Reliving it all has turned her stomach. Her daughter is eight months old and won't settle; she only quietens when her mother puts …
Cataracts are a major cause of blindness in parts of Indonesia, where access to health-care remains precarious. Since 2006, the ICRC and the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) have worked closely together …
23-01-2016 Kiev / Lugansk (ICRC) – Today the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) held a round-table discussion in the town of Lugansk on ways of identifying the dead and handling their …
The humanitarian crisis in the Lake Chad region has left thousands dead, two million displaced, hundreds abducted, and hundreds of thousands forced to flee, often losing contact with their …
Written by Mary Werntz, head of regional delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross in New Delhi Of the world's seven billion people, one billion are living with disabilities. …
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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.
