COVID-19 pandemic
Threat to public health For people living in conflict zones, the spread of COVID-19 posed a serious public health threat. However, it was difficult to prioritize a response to the pandemic when the …
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International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement
The world’s largest humanitarian network, working to prevent and alleviate suffering wherever it may be found. Always on the side of humanity. International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement: …
Climate and conflict
The climate is changing everywhere, but it is people living in fragile circumstances who feel the effects most severely. Climate change and conflict continue to cause massive suffering among people …
Cultural property
The law protects cultural property during armed conflict. That protection stems from the principle that damage to the cultural property of any people, in the words of the 1954 Hague Convention, is …
Private military and security companies
Parties to armed conflicts are increasingly recruiting private military and security companies to undertake tasks traditionally carried out by the armed forces. The involvement of these companies in …
Artificial intelligence
Advances in artificial intelligence for military purposes raise profoundly worrying questions for humanity. Featured articles What you need to know about artificial intelligence in armed …
Protected persons: Missing persons
Many people go missing in war, causing anguish and uncertainty for their families and friends. People have the right to know what has happened to their missing loved ones. Governments, armed forces …
Protected persons: Women
International humanitarian law aims to prevent and alleviate suffering in war without discrimination based on sex. That means that women’s needs must be accounted for. Highlight General and Specific …
Occupation
Recent years have seen an increase in extraterritorial military action. Some of these interventions have given rise to new forms of foreign military presence in the territory of a state, and these …
Protected persons: The wounded, the sick and health-care providers
Protecting the sick and wounded in armed conflict was the founding principle of the 1864 Geneva Convention. That principle remained the core of international humanitarian law as it extended to other …
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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.