Sri Lanka: The tale of a team
In November 2014, a team of eight young field officers embarked on a journey across Sri Lanka. Their mission was to locate 392 families (out of 16,000) whose loved ones went missing during the …
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Uganda: Helping families of the missing to find renewed purpose and meaning
Between 1986 and 2006, some 75,000 people were abducted in northern Uganda. The fate of several thousand remains unknown. The ICRC estimate that as many as 10,000 may still be missing. Their families …
Mexico: Soledad's story - in search of her missing brother
In this video we hear from Soledad in Mexico whose brother went missing several years ago. He left the family village to seek work in the United States and was kidnapped and never heard of again …
International Humanitarian Law: Answers to your Questions
This booklet is an ideal introduction to international humanitarian law. It has been fully revised, and is accessible to all readers interested in the origins, development and modern-day application …
Lebanon: Violence erupts in country’s biggest Palestinian camp
26-08-2015 Beirut / Tyre (ICRC) – Clashes in Ein el-Helweh Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon's southern district of Saida have been among the fiercest in recent years and resulted in many …
Bringing clarity and comfort to families of missing persons
Disappearances are a reality, whether linked to war, migration or disasters. They happen for different reasons, but the suffering of the families is the same. So is the need for documentation to …
Protecting health care - a matter of Life & Death
In August 2011, the ICRC launched the Life&Death campaign, part of the Health Care in Danger (HCiD) project – a global initiative to improve access to health care and make its delivery safer in …
Uruguay: ICRC detention visits in the 1970s and 1980s
The coups in the 1970s in Uruguay, Chile and Argentina had major consequences for the people of the region. Many were killed, wounded, tortured, detained, displaced, went missing or became refugees. …
Mobile surgical teams bring emergency medical care throughout South Sudan
The lack of local medical facilities and expertise are a big challenge for the ICRC medical teams in South Sudan because there are no other health structures or specialists in the country to which …
Families of missing persons in Lebanon: Testimonies of Red Cross staff
The message in this ICRC video is that 'thousands are missing, and thousands are missing them'. The ICRC is collecting detailed data on people missing due to the armed conflicts that have taken place …
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ICRC library
Created in 1863, the ICRC library, alongside the ICRC archives, provides an indispensable documentary reference on the organization itself and international humanitarian law.
IHL treaties
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.