By Helen Durham, director of International Law and Policy, ICRC Nearly 20 years have passed since the Ottawa Treaty came into being, banning anti-personnel landmines. This important piece of …
Internationally, the number of people being injured by landmines is falling. But in some countries, new mines are being laid. Those countries include Iraq. The thousands of men, women and children …
Imagine a humanitarian convoy made up of hundreds of tonnes of rice travelling from one country to another- 2500 miles apart-for the benefit of people in need. That was the case recently when the …
This course, originally developed by the ICRC for its own delegates, provides users with a basic understanding of what happens when people are deprived of their liberty. It covers the various forms …
Landmines, trip wires, unexploded shells – the people of eastern Ukraine are confronted with these on a daily basis. Fighting continues in some areas, while in others it has stopped, but explosive …
On 17-18 February 2016 the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), the International Law and Policy Institute (ILPI) and the ICRC co-hosted a regional roundtable on the prohibition and elimination of …
06-04-2016 Kiev (ICRC) – Intensified shelling in eastern Ukraine is compounding the hardship of displaced and local people living in the vicinity of the line of contact. In particular, repairs to a …
Speech given by Mr Peter Maurer, President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, at the launch of the Updated Commentary on the First Geneva Convention. Updated Commentary on the First …
Speech given Peter Maurer, President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, on the transformation of conflict dynamics and their humanitarian consequences at the National University of …
On 22 March 2016, the ICRC hosted a panel for the Launch of the Updated Commentary on the First Geneva Convention. This livestreamed event offered the Commentaries' perspective on key humanitarian …
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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.
