Peru: twenty years on from the hostage crisis
Twenty years ago, the four-month ordeal of 72 hostages held captive at the residence of the Japanese ambassador to Peru came to an end. For the ICRC, it meant deploying its humanitarian resources to …
Twenty years ago, the four-month ordeal of 72 hostages held captive at the residence of the Japanese ambassador to Peru came to an end. For the ICRC, it meant deploying its humanitarian resources to …
Two years ago, Marmendu Tamang's world changed in just a few minutes. On 25 April 2015, Nepal was hit by one of the most devastating earthquakes recorded in the past eight decades. The earthquake …
Article by Juan Pedro Schaerer, head of the ICRC delegation for Mexico, Central America and Cuba, published in the newspapers El País and Excélsior . I recently met a Mexican mother who had lost all …
A snapshot of our work since the battle for Mosul began: 112,000 people, including host communities and IDPs from Mosul and its environs, benefitted from safe water supply 230,000 people …
Christoph Harnisch Head of the delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Colombia In 2016, we witnessed a historic event for Colombia : the signing of the Final …
When you think of places still reeling from decades of bitter conflict, Northern Ireland is probably not the first place that comes to mind. But 20 years after the Good Friday Agreement brought …
20-04-2017 Jerusalem (ICRC) – The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) condemns an attack which has taken place in its office in the West Bank city of Hebron. At around eleven o’clock last …
Every year, the ICRC organises an International Humanitarian Law Moot Court Competition where students must argue prosecution and defence of a fictional war criminal charged before the International …
In the cold, early morning, Red Cross volunteers bring wood and start a fire at the small temporary building that provides warmth and comfort on the edge of the front line. On the other bank of the …
Clashes and violence in the northern and eastern regions of Cameroon have left millions in need of humanitarian assistance. An estimated 200,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) have been …
Try one of the following resources:
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.