Fighting by the rules
This informative film examines the development of the law of armed conflict and considers its relationship with the whole history of war in the 20th Century. Drawing on a wealth of historical facts …
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Women Facing War
This ICRC study is an extensive reference document on the impact of armed conflict on the lives of women. Taking as its premise the needs of women, e.g. physical safety, access to health care, food …
Protect Health Care: Fast-Tracking of Ambulances (poster)
A child that survived because the ambulance he was being transported in was fast-tracked at a military checkpoint – this is one of the stories told by the new set of five Health Care in Danger …
Internal Displacement in Armed Conflict: Facing Up to the Challenges
Internal displacement, affecting tens of millions of people, is one of the most tragic consequences of armed conflict and other violence. This ICRC report highlights the reasons people are forced to …
Health Care in Danger: Violent Incidents Affecting the Delivery of Health Care, January 2012 to December 2013
From January 2012 to December 2013, ICRC documented 1,809 incidents of assaults or threats against patients, health-care personnel, ambulances or medical facilities. Although it is probably only the …
Where are they now? Restoring and maintaining family links: the worldwide network of the ICRC and the Red Cross Red Crescent National Societies
Uncertainty over the fate of a loved one causes untold suffering in wartime. This film captures how the ICRC Central Tracing Agency, together with Red Cross and Red Crescent National Societies all …
Increasing Respect for International Humanitarian Law in Non-International Armed Conflicts
The most widely prevalent type of armed conflict today is non-international in nature. It involves hostilities between government armed forces and organized non-State armed groups or is carried on …
Anti-personnel mine injuries: surgical management
In the last twenty years, ICRC surgical teams have treated more than 12,000 victims of anti-personnel mines. This in-depth film on surgery for mine-blast victims was shot in the ICRC hospital in …
Protecting Civilians and Humanitarian Action through the Arms Trade Treaty
Every year, the widespread availability and misuse of weapons leads to the displacement, wounding, rape or death of hundreds of thousands of civilians. States, National Red Cross and Red Crescent …
Restoring Family Links (poster)
The development of this poster is in line with a series of efforts to highlight the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement's efforts to reconnect separated family members and to promote the new logo …
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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.