E-briefing: Sexual violence in armed conflict
Sexual violence has been, and to a large extent continues to be, shrouded in silence. However, its prevalence and horrific toll on individuals and societies, as well as the dynamics behind it, have …
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Syria: 60,000 people given aid in Homs after ceasefire agreement
16-12-2015 Damascus – Geneva: The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) have started to deliver food and other aid to thousands of people in the …
Lebanon: ICRC and UNRWA join forces again to help Palestine refugees
16-12-2015 Beirut – Particularly vulnerable Palestine refugees from Syria in Lebanon will receive assistance to cope with the coming winter through a programme launched by the International Committee …
Syria: Harsh winter has arrived
Displaced Syrians in camps with tattered tents or living in run-down homes fear the ongoing winter, which is going to get harsher in coming weeks. It will be extremely difficult for children to …
Report: Sexual violence in armed conflict: Underlying causes and prevention strategies
Building on the previous panel discussion " Responding to sexual violence in conflict: can we do better ?", the ICRC and the Geneva Centre for Education and Research in Humanitarian Action (CERAH) …
Roots of Behaviour in War: ICRC seeks researchers
What factors condition behaviour in armed conflict? What is the distance between knowing IHL and respecting it? What leads a combatant to comply with the law or not? Ten years after the publication …
Australia: Challenges of principled humanitarian action
In November 2015, the ICRC and Deakin University gathered representatives from humanitarian organizations for a closed roundtable in Melbourne on the costs and challenges of adhering to the …
South Sudan: A hospital on the front line
The hospital in Kodok, South Sudan was caught in the crossfire of warring parties in July 2015. Two people died and the hospital staff were forced to flee the area. Eleven patients died in subsequent …
Nagorno-Karabakh: Families of missing persons have the right to know
Now that her parents have died, leaving her alone, this woman speaks of her missing brother with more despair than ever. CC BY-NC-ND / ICRC / M. Kokic A relative of a missing person learns to weave …
Libya: Struggle to survive as services collapse
With no end in sight to the fighting in Libya, people are losing hope of ever returning to normal life. Many regions face regular power cuts, water cuts and fuel shortages, and it is becoming …
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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.
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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 IHL
Customary international humanitarian law consists of rules that come from "a general practice accepted as law" and that exist independent of treaty law.