The need for urgent medical aid for earthquake survivors is desperate. Health care personnel from all over the world have joined forces to treat the wounded. Field hospitals and operating theatres have been set up for the most severe cases. Shortly after the disaster struck, first-aid posts were set up by the Haitian Red Cross and the ICRC, providing basic health care to tens of thousands living in makeshift camps.

The water supply in Port-au-Prince was already in a critical state but the earthquake made the situation far worse as the supply network was crushed and fractured. Tens of thousands of people were left without safe water. Setting up self contained water storage and distribution systems was an immediate priority for the ICRC.

In Haiti, thousands of people live in anguish, unsure whether their relatives are buried under the rubble or alive and unable to communicate. In the first two weeks following the earthquake, Red Cross tracing teams offered over 2,000 phone calls to survivors in the largest camps in Port-au-Prince, so they could get in touch with relatives abroad. Over 3,000 people have posted a "safe and well" message on a special website (www.icrc.org/familylinks), while 22,000 persons are listed as unaccounted for.

More than a year on from the conflict between Russia and Georgia in August 2008, the lives of thousands remain in limbo. In the ruins of Satskheneti village in South Ossetia, there are just five elderly people remaining. Joyce Hood, an ICRC nurse, brings medical care to these people once a week, and is particularly close to one old couple, Natella and Volodya. This is their story.

Zoia Tigiev's life has been on hold since her 30-year-old son Tamaz went missing in August 2008. He was last seen on their farm when their village in South Ossetia came under attack from Georgian forces. Zoia remains in a kind of limbo – unable to mourn and move on until she knows for certain what happened to her son.

Two thousand Georgians living in Upper Kodori Gorge, an area of Abkhazia controlled by Georgia, fled when Russian planes bombed the area in August 2008. They have been living in collective centres in Kutaisi and Tbilisi.

In August 2008, hostilities resumed between the military of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and fighters of the National Congress for the Defence of the People. Over 250,000 civilians were forced to flee, sometimes repeatedly. In the chaos, families were separated, children were lost. The ICRC works with the Don Bosco centre, an orphanage in Goma, to reunite children with their families.

James Nachtwey, a well-respected war photographer, went to the Philippines in 2009 for the the ICRC. He witnessed the hardships of some of the country's most vulnerable people: detainees and people displaced by conflict. For more than 17 years, the ICRC has been visiting people detained in connection with armed conflicts and other situations of violence in the Philippines.

In February 2009 Francisco, 20, and a friend from his hamlet set off to earn a day's wage and unknowingly stepped into a mine field. Francisco survived, but at a terrible cost. This is his story. In Colombia, many lives are broken in rural communities who continue to suffer due to the use of landmines.

Brice Osmer lost his arm in 2005 after being hit by a stray bullet near his home in Cité Soleil. Shortly thereafter, his wife was shot in the stomach and barely survived. Violence affects 98% of the population of this sprawling shanty town, one of the poorest in the Western hemisphere, hindering people's ability to work and thus put food on the table for their families.

James Nachtwey, a celebrated war photographer, went to Afghanistan in 2009 for the ICRC. He witnessed the hardships of some of the country's most vulnerable people. This collection of his work gives a glimpse of the human cost of war through his eyes.

Violence is on the rise again as gang members struggle for power in Cité Soleil, the sprawling slum in Port-au-Prince. Haitian Red Cross volunteers put their lives on the line as they evacuate the sick and wounded from communities caught in the crossfire such as Martissant, the setting of this film.

Along with their children, the women of Liberia have borne the brunt of 14 years of war, enduring trauma beyond imagination. The Lutheran Church of Liberia's Trauma Healing and Reconciliation Programme provides free counselling to women to help them identify coping mechanisms to deal with past trauma and current hardships.

Najmuddin suffered a personal tragedy more than 20 years ago when both his legs had to be amputated above the knee because of a landmine explosion. Today, he is a director of the ICRC's rehabilitation centre in Kabul where he meets and treats the victims of mines and improvised explosive devices every day.

Shukuru is one of hundreds of children who lost touch with his family when fighting intensified in Eastern Congo last year. Like many others, he was feared to be dead. The joy of his relatives was endless when he finally returned home with the help of the ICRC.

Building back better after the four consecutive killer storms that ravaged Haiti in 2008 is a major challenge that is being taken up by the Haitian Red Cross, among others. This film is set in the hurricane-ravaged city of Gonaives, where people are very concerned about what may lie in store for the 2009 hurricane season.

Following a report on Lebanon as part of the “Our world. Your move.” campaign, cartoonist Chappatte visited South Ossetia last June. He portrays everyday life in the region a year after the fighting of summer 2008, the effects of which are still very much present. The report was published in Swiss daily Le Temps on 8 August 2009.

Almost three years after the summer 2006 conflict, the people of southern Lebanon still live with the threat of time-bombs in the form of cluster-munition bomblets. Chappatte has worked for many publications, including the International Herald Tribune and Swiss daily Le Temps. He went to Lebanon as part of the "Our world. Your move." campaign.

Every day women are raped in Eastern Congo. Consequently, they not only suffer physical pain, but also emotional trauma and the fear of being rejected by their communities. The ICRC supports over 30 counselling centres in North and South Kivu, where victims of rape meet compassionate listeners and find support as they talk about their suffering.

Fighting between the military and the armed opposition displaced hundreds of thousands of people in Eastern Congo last year. The outbreak of hostilities made it impossible for farmers to plant their seeds and left the displaced dependent on maize flour, palm oil and beans distributed by humanitarian organizations.

Red Cross volunteers in Haiti undertake particularly dangerous and stressful work as they evacuate the sick and wounded from the slums of Port-au-Prince, sometimes having to make life and death decisions over the telephone with gang leaders.

A long-term resident of Cite Soleil, the Haitian capital's sprawling seaside slum, 83-year-old Elvanise Tidor was first caught in gangland crossfire in 1993, before stepping into harms way again in 2004. Women in countries affected by violence face enormous risks and often show great resourcefulness in overcoming terrible circumstances.

Nahr el Bared is a Palestinian camp in Northern Lebanon, where the Lebanese Army battled an armed group called Fatah al Islam for almost four months in 2007. Said Tawiyyeh, 59, is a Palestinian refugee in Lebanon and has been a Palestine Red Crescent Society medical volunteer for 27 years.

As Liberia recovers from civil war, health workers and midwives are in short supply. When village women give birth, they are usually helped by a traditional birth attendant from their own community. The ICRC and the Liberian Ministry of Health have developed a training programme to improve the skills of traditional birth attendants. When the participants complete the course, they know how to help with normal deliveries and when to send women with complications to the nearest health centre.

Hasniyye Yehia Tawiyyeh, 60, is living the nightmare of displacement. "It is hard to describe how much one suffers when one has to leave his house and belongings and just get out with barely the clothes on his back and nothing else. No money, no food, nothing of any kind."

During the five week conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006, up to 4 million cluster munitions fell on Lebanon. Hundreds of thousands of them failed to explode on impact, contaminating huge swathes of the country and killing hundreds of civilians long after the fighting had stopped. Over several decades, cluster munitions have killed and maimed tens of thousands of people in war-torn countries around the world.

When the conflict in Darfur, west Sudan, broke out in 2003, hundreds of thousands of people lost their homes. Many sought shelter in camps but many more had to survive without help from anyone. Mariam was one of them. She remembers the terrible night the fighters came to her village, driving her out of her home with her baby on her back.

Charlotte Tabaro is a psycho-social worker for the Red Cross in DRC. By offering a listening ear to victims of sexual violence, she helps them to share their experiences and deal with the pain of the traumatic events they have gone through.

For more than 150 years, the ICRC has responded to the needs of the victims of violence all over the world. Lots remain to be done to assist the most vulnerable. Famous cricket player Sachin Tendulkar, Bollywood actress Nandita Das give their voice to the Red Cross/Red Crescent call for voluntarism. The onus is on each one of us to make our planet a better place to live.

Following a period of intense fighting in the North West Frontier Province, many residents are today returning to their homes in the Malakand Division. They unfortunately too often find their crops and livestock destroyed. The ICRC and the Pakistani Red Crescent are delivering wheat seed and fertilizer to over 315,000 people in Dir and Buner districts in an effort to overcome economic hardship and help them become self-reliant again. Food will also be distributed to those most in need.

Ten-year-old Alina lives in Khyber Agency in north-west Pakistan. At the ICRC'S field hospital in Peshawar she remembers the day when she was going out to play and a sudden massive explosion knocked her unconscious. The bomb killed her friend outright and left Alina badly wounded – both casualties of the fighting in the region which is taking a heavy toll on civilians.

In November 2001, twenty workers from Jogimara in Dhading District headed off to Kalikot to work at the airport construction site: 17 of them did not return home. There has been no official word on their fate and their families have no idea what happened to them.

In the first days of the emergency, hundreds of tonnes of food, blankets and sanitary supplies were flown into the Georgian capital, Tbilisi. During his 3 day visit to Georgia and the Russian Federation, ICRC President Jacob Kellenberger saw the difficult conditions for himself, and met some of the thousands of people displaced by fighting and in urgent need of assistance.

Fighting has been intensifying in northern Yemen. Often people have no choice but to flee to safer areas. The ICRC and the Yemeni Red Crescent have organized distributions of essentials household items for about 30,000 people so far. On 18 September 2009 aid was handed out in Khaiwan town.

During the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988), the ICRC registered almost 40,000 Iranian and more than 67,000 Iraqi prisoners of war. Many of them were voluntarily repatriated, but tens of thousands of soldiers remain unaccounted for today.

Three weeks of intense conflict have taken a heavy toll on civilians. In Shijaiya, one of the poorest residential areas of Gaza City, families return to see the full extent of the damage. The ICRC and Palestine Red Crescent Society have started repair work on some of the Strip's shattered infrastructure, but it will take more than emergency aid for people in Gaza to recover from this latest crisis.

In Shifa Hospital, Gaza City, the main referral hospital in the Gaza strip, large numbers of severely injured patients are being treated round the clock. The ICRC medical staff at the hospital say that most of the casualties are civilians, many of them children. The shortage of intensive care beds for the most seriously injured puts lives further at risk.

From the onset of the disaster, ICRC staff already in Haiti distributed medical items to hospitals. The relief effort is gathering pace with the departure from Geneva of specialized staff to Port-au-Prince. A cargo plane carrying 40 tonnes of relief supplies left Switzerland Thursday evening. Due to the prevailing chaos in Haiti, access and security are the biggest challenges the humanitarian community is now facing.

Round table on the theme "International Humanitarian Law at the Beginning of the 21st Century: Challenges and Prospects". Includes video extracts.

In late 1979, as a massive assistance operation got underway for survivors of the brutal Khmer Rouge regime, the ICRC took a film crew to the devastated country, to show the desperate situation and what was being done to help. This video (shot on 16mm film) shows the situation in Cambodia itself and across the border in Thailand, where many Khmers had taken shelter.

ICRC good will ambassadors, Nandita Das, an award-winning Indian actress and independent filmmaker, and Mahesh Bhatt, an Indian film director, producer and screenwriter, talk about the "Our world. Your move." campaign.

This video spot conjures up the suffering endured by children in wartime and reminds us about the obligation, under the law, to protect them and respect their rights. The ICRC assists child victims of war and their families.