The Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons is one of the principal instruments of international humanitarian law. It seeks to minimize suffering in armed conflict by prohibiting or regulating the …
This booklet draws together the lessons learned by the ICRC over the past few decades and aims to provide authorities and the most senior personnel among arms carriers with an overview of what we …
This Health Care in Danger report compiles a complete set of practical measures to be adopted when planning and conducting military operations with a view to avoiding the negative impact of such …
This volume contains the official texts of the two Protocols additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, as adopted on 8 June 1977 by the Diplomatic Conference on the Reaffirmation and …
It has been a busy summer for the HCiD ambulance. It first travelled to Stockholm to take part in the 150th anniversary celebrations of the Swedish Red Cross. It then moved to Växjö for the Swedish …
Who to treat first, a civilian or a combatant? Under international humanitarian law all wounded people shall be considered to be patients first, whether civilian or combatant. Ethically speaking, …
In October 2015, British photographer Giles Duley travelled to South Sudan with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Himself a triple amputee – the result of an IED in Afghanistan – …
The Life & Death campaign marked its 4th anniversary on World Humanitarian Day (19 August). The campaign's goal is to raise awareness of the serious consequences of violence against health-care …
On 3 October 2015, Médecins Sans Frontières' hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, was bombed. 30 people were killed – including 13 health-care workers – and 37 injured. MSF declares that Coalition and …
What do ethics have to do with protecting health care? How can we make sure doctors and nurses – civilian or soldiers – know their rights and responsibilities? What can we do to ensure everyone else …
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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.
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 international humanitarian law consists of rules that come from "a general practice accepted as law" and that exist independent of treaty law.
