Iraq: Civilians need help as they flee fighting
The cities of Dohuk and Khanik are overwhelmed with families who have fled the fighting in Sinjar and elsewhere in northern Iraq. Many of them spent days without food and water on Mount Sinjar before …
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From our archives: Rules to limit suffering
1864: Protecting wounded and sick soldiers Ottoman Empire, Russo-Turkish war of 1877-78. First-aid post for wounded soldiers. The 1864 Geneva Convention stipulated that wounded soldiers and those …
Syria: ICRC steps up aid efforts across Aleppo
Country-wide intensification of hostilities has claimed the lives of thousands and worsened access to water, food, and basic health-care services for tens of thousands of people. Over three million …
Ukraine crisis: What the ICRC is doing
The ICRC has a delegation in Kiev, offices in Donetsk, Kharkiv and Odessa and sub-offices in Severodonetsk and Mariupol. We have over 50 staff in the country, and are currently sending further …
Madagascar: Akanin’ny Marary does quality work for people with physical disabilities
The Akanin'ny Marary ("Home for the Sick") Centre in Madagascar is located in Ambositra, a town in the Amoron'i Mania region, Fianarantsoa province. It treats people with leprosy, tuberculosis and …
Mali: I may have lost an arm, but at least I'm alive
"It was one morning in May 2014, the day fighting started again between the Malian army and armed groups," he explained. The people of Kidal had left their homes to stock up on supplies during a …
Horn of Africa: Declining food security
The food security situation is deteriorating in South Sudan and Somalia. Mathias Frese, head of relief for the ICRC in Eastern Africa, takes stock of the factors that have led to too many people …
Iraq: Fighting impedes hospital access for patients, staff and supplies
The conflict in northern Iraq is making it difficult for patients, staff and supplies to reach hospitals. Hundred of thousands have fled to safer areas. ICRC delegate Saleh Dabbakeh reports on the …
ICRC President Peter Maurer in Gaza, Israel and the West Bank
Peter Maurer has begun a three-day mission to see for himself the human cost of the on-going conflict. …
Gazans return home to scenes of utter desolation
During a brief ceasefire, Gazan residents return to find their homes reduced to dust and rubble. Heavy shelling of Shijaia in Gaza City has left scenes of appalling destruction. For residents …
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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.
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.