ICRC Humanitarian Law and Policy Blog

In the humanitarian sector, bureaucracy has been faulted for everything from ageism and the suppression of talent to a bloated and inefficient response, as examined by Hugo Slim on this blog last year. But when you examine three of the main issues currently plaguing the sector — sexual misconduct, corruption and fraud, and the politicization of resource allocation — the case for watering down huma...

The extent to which States have legal responsibilities under international humanitarian law in relation to the conduct of others has long been contested. Under general international law, the law on State responsibility does set out certain circumstances in which States have negative and positive obligations arising from others’ wrongful conduct, yet these are heavily restricted. In this post – par...

While ratification of the Geneva Conventions is a relatively recent phenomenon, warfare has always been subject to certain principles and customs. Two thirds of today’s armed conflicts are taking place in Muslim contexts, wherein some arms carriers cite Islamic law as a reference. In this post – part of a joint blog symposium with Opinio Juris exploring the ICRC Commentary on the Third Geneva Conv...

While ratification of the Geneva Conventions is a relatively recent phenomenon, warfare has always been subject to certain principles and customs. International humanitarian law has its roots in the rules of ancient civilizations and religions, and the teachings of Buddhism are highly relevant in this regard. In this post – celebrating the launch of the new ICRC Religion and Humanitarian Principle...

Misinformation is on the rise, and the humanitarian sector has not escaped the consequences. The misinformation environment not only sustains itself in a vicious cycle, but also increases data protection challenges and disrupts humanitarian protection and assistance work. In this post, Rachel Xu from the Yale Jackson Institute for Global Affairs overviews some key characteristics of a fertile misi...

In generalizing groups as homogeneously ‘vulnerable’, we risk closing our eyes to existing spheres of power, diversity and capacity that exist among populations affected by armed conflict and other situations of violence. By going beyond broad monolithic categorizations and instead accounting for the specific needs, risks and capacities of affected people through an intersectional framework, we ca...

While a woman’s experience in a prisoners of war (POW) camp may not differ drastically from men in all cases, the Third Geneva Convention (GCIII) operates to ensure equal treatment in a number of ways where experiences do diverge. In this post – part of the 16 days of activism against gender-based violence, as well as the ‘GCIII Commentary’ blog series marking the ICRC’s updated Commentary on the...

While disability inequalities have long been observed, the global COVID-19 crisis has deepened and exposed the problem of exclusion, which renders work on disability inclusion urgent and imperative. As such, the theme for this year’s International Day of Persons with Disabilities is “Building Back Better: toward a disability-inclusive, accessible and sustainable post COVID-19 World”. In this post...

Three months into the pandemic, the ICRC’s Head of Addressing Sexual Violence published a call to humanitarian agencies to urgently address the risk of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) rising in the shadow of COVID-19. She called on ICRC and others to bolster efforts to ensure continued service delivery for survivors of sexual violence. It is now clear that the COVID-19 pandemic has enabled...

IHL in action: seven patterns of respect by ICRC Law and Policy

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare workers in conflict zones and peaceful countries alike have faced countless challenges, including shortages of protective equipment and insufficient protocol to treat the new virus. Some doctors, nurses, ambulance drivers and other healthcare professionals have experienced stigmatization within their own communities, triggered by an intense angu...

As countries struggle to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, the world’s focus is on developing a vaccine. While the virus itself affects all countries and people without discrimination, containing the pandemic carries specific challenges in armed conflict situations. Once a vaccine does become available, how can we ensure that everyone – including people living in war zones – have equal access to it?...

In an era in which a number of developed nations have been accused of ill-treating or unlawfully killing captured persons or persons under their control, the need for international bright lines has never been more important. In this post – part of a joint blog symposium with Just Security and EJIL:Talk! exploring the new ICRC Commentary on the Third Geneva Convention (GCIII Commentary) – Royal New...

The object and purpose of the Third Geneva Convention is to ensure that prisoners of war are humanely treated at all times, while allowing belligerents to intern captured enemy combatants to prevent them from returning to the battlefield. But what happens when, in a concrete situation, these two overarching considerations point in different directions? In this post – part of a joint blog symposium...

The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown countries into confusion, devastated economies and caused major disruption to almost every aspect of our lives. The world of diplomacy has not been spared the chaos. Politicians, ambassadors and officials have scrambled to adapt to changing circumstances and learn the tricks and techniques of virtual diplomacy. So how do you negotiate, persuade and influence in a v...

With an ever-increasing number of non-State armed groups and a growing tendency for non-international armed conflicts (NIAC) to be fought by coalitions, it is crucial that our interpretation of international humanitarian law (IHL) continues to reflect realities on the ground. In this post, ICRC legal advisors Jelena Nikolic, Thomas de Saint Maurice, and Tristan Ferraro suggest that in situations w...

The international community agrees that international law applies in cyberspace. But how does it apply? Interpreting established concepts of international law such as sovereignty, countermeasures, combatancy or perfidy in the novel context of cyberspace can be particularly challenging. In this post, the editors of the Cyber Law Toolkit, an interactive online resource on international law and cyber...

As the world grapples with new security challenges, it is pertinent now more than ever for global leaders to uphold the rules and principles of international humanitarian law in ensuring that weapons with catastrophic humanitarian consequences, such as nuclear weapons, are eliminated from the earth. In this post, Fatima Alkali, an Associate Professor of international humanitarian law who currently...

Jess Markt, ICRC Disability Sport & Inclusion Advisor, is an internationally-acclaimed wheelchair basketball coach who has travelled across the world to help the ICRC train and establish new players and teams — including in India, South Sudan, Afghanistan, Palestine, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Syria, among others. The success of this inspiring work is testimony to the difference the opp...

Efforts to protect students, teachers, and schools during times of armed conflict will get extra attention this week due to the inaugural UN International Day for the Protection of Education from Attack and a dedicated UN Security Council meeting on the topic. Concrete action to protect education from attack is particularly urgent now as COVID-19 further endangers students’ schooling, argues Bede...

The Third Geneva Convention (GCIII) provides a framework of rules for the protection of prisoners of war, including that they are ‘entitled in all circumstances to respect for their persons and their honour’ (Article 14). The obligation to respect a prisoner of war’s honour – like the Geneva Conventions as a whole – draws upon the highest notions of humanity. It reminds us that even in the drudger...

Today’s 71st anniversary of the 1949 Geneva Conventions is an opportunity to recall once more the vital role of international humanitarian law (IHL) in upholding human dignity in situations of armed conflict. While the Conventions, and IHL more generally, frame crucial limits on the suffering that may be inflicted in armed conflict, it is only through faithful dissemination, implementation and res...

The testimonies of the victims and survivors of nuclear weapons prompt us to imagine the unimaginable, think the unthinkable and give voice to the unspeakable suffering caused by atomic bombs. Marking 75 years this week since the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Magnus Løvold, Policy Adviser in the Arms Unit of the ICRC’s Legal Division, calls on us to honor and remember the testimonies of surv...

The Third Geneva Convention is the most comprehensive legal framework protecting prisoners of war. Adopted in 1949 against the backdrop of immense suffering during the Second World War, it was a remarkable multilateral achievement, with additional and stronger protections than had ever been agreed upon for prisoners of war. Today, it is universally ratified. In this post, Cordula Droege, Chief Leg...

In the wake of the murder of George Floyd in the United States, and the protests that have swept parts of the world since, we find ourselves face-to-face with a long overdue racial reckoning. We are now at the stage where institutions are transitioning from hearing out employees’ experiences to deciding what they will publicly commit to doing in order to combat discrimination and systemic inequiti...