Means of personal identification
Fact sheet describing the obligations of States regarding the national implementation of the norms applicable to this particular aspect of international humanitarian law. ADVISORY SERVICE ON …
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To Serve and to Protect: Human Rights and Humanitarian Law for Police and Security Forces
Law enforcement officials play a key role in society, serving and protecting the people and upholding the law. That role is valid at all times, including during armed conflicts and other situations …
Colombia: “When the water tanks arrived, the whole village celebrated”
Seven out of ten people in the village of Tamaje, on the Pacific Coast of Colombia, were falling ill from drinking contaminated water. The ICRC resolved the problem by installing rainwater storage …
Fighting violations of humanitarian law
Former ICRC director of operations Pierre Krähenbühl talks about the discussions that took place following 9/11 between the ICRC and various governments, including that of the USA, on the relevance …
65th Anniversary of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide
Statement 25th session, Human Rights Council With the adoption of the Genocide Convention in 1948 and, a year later, of the four Geneva Conventions, the international community unequivocally stated …
Children and armed conflict & violence against children
25th session, Human Rights Council The ICRC would like to address the impact of armed conflict on children's access to education and the specific measures that can be taken to improve the protection …
Sexual violence in armed conflicts: An invisible tragedy
On International Women's Day, the ICRC is drawing attention to the horror of sexual violence, which is amplified during times of conflict. Many suffer in silence. In this video, our deputy director …
Sexual violence and remedies – Navi Pillay
Navi Pillay, High Commissioner on Human Rights, met with women victims of sexual violence when she sat as a judge on the Rwandan tribunal. In this video, she speaks of the importance of truly …
Madagascar: Plague-free prisons
It might be supposed that the plague has been eradicated from the planet, but it is still rife in countries like the Democratic Republic of the Congo or Madagascar. This 10-minute film shows the …
From our archives: Women and war
Franco-Prussian war, 1870-1871. A painting of Bazeilles, a village in France, after violent clashes there between French and Bavarian soldiers. In the foreground, among the victims, are a woman and …
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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.