Humanity under fire
Bombed hospitals. Health and first-aid workers killed. Heavily populated urban areas bombarded. What can be done to ensure respect for the rules of war? It's a sad and familiar pattern: April 2015 : …
Bombed hospitals. Health and first-aid workers killed. Heavily populated urban areas bombarded. What can be done to ensure respect for the rules of war? It's a sad and familiar pattern: April 2015 : …
The ICRC supports the efforts of States Party to the Geneva Conventions to respect and ensure respect for international humanitarian law (IHL) by providing States with technical expertise on IHL, …
05-10-2016 Athens (ICRC) – In an effort to address the humanitarian challenge of identifying dead migrants, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Hellenic Police's Forensic …
05-10-2016 Geneva/Kiev (ICRC) - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has announced it will step in to pay electricity bills, on an emergency basis, to avoid water being cut off to …
United Nations, General Assembly, 71st session, Sixth Committee, statement by the ICRC, New York, October 2016. Terrorism negates the fundamental principle of humanity and is contrary to the other …
Speech by Peter Maurer, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, at the Brussels Conference on Afghanistan, 5 October 2016. Excellencies, Dear colleagues, Ladies and gentlemen, When …
The tsunami of December 26 2004 affected many parts of the world, but had greater impact on areas contiguous to the Indian Ocean, especially in Asia. The deadly impact of this natural disaster …
05-10-2016 Abuja (ICRC) – Almost 40 staff members of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) gathered today for a three-day workshop in Abuja to learn about international humanitarian law in …
On 4 October 2016, the ICRC hosted a conference at the Humanitarium to discuss how military commanders can ensure their operations remain within the confines of international humanitarian law (IHL). …
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) annually hosts the Zimbabwe National International Humanitarian Law Moot Court competition to promote knowledge and awareness of IHL amongst young …
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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.