That day nine words changed her life. “Dear Mother. How are you? We are in Bangladesh.” Some months ago, Adere Begum* would not have known that one day just nine words would change her life. But …
Seventy years on, the Geneva Conventions are much more than a legacy, or simply something to be proud of and commemorate. A lot has been achieved since 1949...But much more needs to be done... Read …
Statement President's address at the Graduate Institute, Geneva Destroyed buildings in Mosul, Iraq. CC BY-NC-ND/ ICRC/ Clare Cameron It's always a pleasure to speak at the Graduate Institute and with …
Due to its unique mandate, the ICRC enjoys specific privileges and immunities under international and domestic law. But why exactly does the ICRC need them? Knut Dörmann, the ICRC's chief legal …
A spike in violence has seen tens of thousands of people uprooted from their communities in north-eastern Nigeria. The influx of people to urban centres has placed additional strain on limited …
Geneva (ICRC) – The family members of 23 people, who were unaccounted for in connection with the armed conflicts of 1990s and August 2008, were informed that their loved ones were positively …
In a remote camp in Iraq's Diyala governorate, around 150 families live together. You might not have heard about them in the news, but just like any other camp, people here are struggling to survive. …
According to official figures, over 2,300 persons are still unaccounted for as a consequence of armed conflicts of the 1990's and August 2008. In search for the missing people, 60 sites were …
Three years ago, the waste situation was out of control in La Joyita prison in Panama – a country where recycling, despite being all the rage elsewhere these days, is still not the norm. In prisons, …
Standing their ground over four rounds of pitching and defending arguments, budding lawyers from Peking University, China, won the 17th Red Cross International Humanitarian Law (IHL) Moot for …
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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.
