What treaties make up IHL? What is customary IHL?
Extract from ICRC publication "International humanitarian law: answers to your questions" Contemporary IHL came into being with the original Geneva Convention of 1864. It has evolved in stages, to …
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United Kingdom - Sexual violence: What use is the law?
Despite widespread international attention and condemnation, sexual violence in armed conflict remains pervasive. At this event, organised with the Chatham House International Security and …
Corporate Support Group visits Syrian refugees in Jordan
In the first visit of its kind, the ICRC recently took eight members of its Corporate Support Group (CSG) to Jordan, so they could see the situation on the ground for themselves and discover how the …
Armenia: Families of missing persons renovate homes with ICRC loans
Families of missing persons are finally able to renovate their run-down homes, thanks to loans from the ICRC and the Fuller Center for Housing Armenia. Seventy families have already taken advantage …
Ukraine: How is the ICRC helping people detained in relation to the conflict?
Interview with Emmanuelle Birraux, protection coordinator for the ICRC delegation in Ukraine, on visits to detainees The ICRC is visiting people detained on both sides in connection with the conflict …
The “Chinese Hospital” in Kandahar
Blue sky, white clouds, olive green, these words can hardly be associated with the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, which is plagued by conflict. You certainly wouldn't imagine the city had a …
Afghanistan: All they need is an opportunity
I had read much about Alberto Cairo. A former lawyer from Italy who came to Afghanistan by chance, he's been working in Afghanistan for almost 25 years and runs the ICRC orthopaedic centre in Kabul. …
Ukraine crisis: Helping people through the winter
Semenovka, Ukraine, December 2014. Like many towns and villages in eastern Ukraine, Semenovka, a village near Sloviansk in Donetsk region, was badly damaged during fighting between May and July 2014. …
Protection challenges and needs faced by women and girls in armed conflict and post-conflict settings
Security Council open debate on the protection of civilians in armed conflict, statement by the Director of International Law and Policy of the ICRC On behalf of the International Committee of the …
Protection of women & girls in armed conflict: Speech by ICRC's head of IHL
What are the protection challenges and needs faced by women and girls in armed conflict and post-conflict settings? Helen Durham, head of Law and Policy at the International Committe of the Red …
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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.