ICRC Humanitarian Law and Policy Blog

With increasing pressures on the humanitarian environment – shrinking space and shrinking funds first among them – the need to influence authorities and donors has never been greater. But how to do it to best effect? In this post, ICRC Diplomatic Adviser Nick Hawton takes a personal look at the lessons learned from the fields of communication and diplomacy and how to maximize the chances of influe...

Armed conflicts have long-lasting repercussions on the population affected, even after the conflict has ended. Humanitarian organizations operating in these settings can alleviate the suffering and contribute to the enjoyment of human rights. To do this, their activities must be facilitated, and their personnel protected at all times. In this post, part of our series ‘IHL in the aftermath’, ICRC L...

On the eve of the declaration of independence by the Republic of South Sudan in 2011, the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement welcomed the establishment of a new National Red Cross Society – the South Sudan Red Cross. One and a half years later, civil war broke out in the newly formed country. For this post, as part of our series ‘Back to basics: humanitarian principles in contemporary armed confl...

As the smoke clears, a range of challenges reveal themselves in the wake of battles and conflict. These issues impact civilians in different ways, according to their particular circumstances. In this post, part of our IHL in the aftermath series and in support of the forthcoming edition of the International Review of the Red Cross, ICRC Legal Associate Victoria Riello looks at some of the specific...

Global attention is squarely focused on COP27 of the UN Framework Convention of Climate Change (UNFCCC) now underway in Sharm El Sheikh. Parties to the convention are focusing on defining and operationalizing a Global Goal on Adaptation, the financing of loss and damage, and a new collective quantified goal on climate finance. Attention to people and situations affected by conflict is largely abse...

Doctors who provide care for the war wounded and ICRC delegates who work in areas affected by armed conflict rely on a unique and universally recognized symbol of protection: the distinctive red cross or red crescent emblems. For over 150 years, these have conveyed a simple message: facilities, vehicles, or people displaying the emblem must not be attacked. Today, medical facilities and humanitari...

As the international armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine drags on, the international community continues to sound the alarm about the significant risks of a nuclear reactor accident as a result of protracted fighting around the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant – the largest nuclear power plant in Europe and among the ten largest in the world. In this post, ICRC Legal Advisers Abby Zeith and...

For decades, there has been consensus in the international community that in times of armed conflict, impartial humanitarian operations and the humanitarian personnel involved therein must not be targeted. In other words, you do not shoot at the truck that delivers food and medicine to civilians. This consensus must be respected online as well as offline, as recently affirmed in a resolution entit...

In international armed conflict, citizens of non-belligerent States can (and do) find their way onto the battlefield. Whether they arrive as volunteers, security company employees, or mercenaries, so-called third-country nationals test the common assumption that States fight wars with armies of their own loyal citizens. But foreign fighters are nothing new. They are a regular feature of war, and t...

In areas marked by gender inequality, women and girls are particularly at risk of the compounding effects of armed conflict and climate change. Militaries should track these risks to ensure they develop a fuller picture of the human security situation in their areas of operations. To do this effectively, militaries require a different sort of staff tool than is currently produced using ordinary op...

Why should parties to a conflict care about climate change and the environment? This is a question that is frequently raised when discussing the intersection of climate, conflict and the environment. The connection may not be obvious, but the case for environmental protection and considering climate change during conflict is only getting stronger and more relevant. In this post, Sarah Gale, Techni...

The end of intense combat during armed conflict – whether permanent or temporary –does not automatically correlate with an end to human suffering. The last four posts in our series ‘IHL in the aftermath’ aimed to paint a scene of the human suffering in the aftermath of conflict, but also proposed some solutions. In this fifth instalment, ICRC Chief Protection Officer Christian Cardon de Lichtbuer,...

‘What I know is that for me, for many, the war will not be over until more is done to restore us and our town to normality’. Conflict is not just about international humanitarian law (IHL) and how it is applied. During conflict and in its aftermath, the voice of the civilians affected should be considered. In this post, the fourth in our ‘IHL in the aftermath’ series, ICRC Senior Legal Adviser Kel...

The recently-launched ICRC blog series ‘Back to basics: humanitarian principles in contemporary armed conflict’ aims to inspire discussion and debate about the relevance of, and challenges to, the humanitarian principles in current times. For some, that phrasing might imply a worrying move back to a time when humanitarian action was conceptualized in its most simplistic form, and the complex inter...

Though it cannot be up to women alone to capture gendered impacts in treaty texts and outcome documents, their perspective has often helped to pave the way. Research shows that women’s participation in a negotiation process is more likely to lead to the inclusion of gender provisions. In this post, part of a series on Gender and Conflict co-hosted by the ICRC and Just Security, ICRC Senior Arms Ad...

In seemingly a moment, a city can go from being prosperous and peaceful to completely ravaged by war. Depending on how a conflict plays out and how the parties fulfil their IHL obligations before, during or after battle, inhabitants of a city can experience the aftermath of war in very different ways. In this post, part of the ‘IHL in the Aftermath’ series, ICRC Senior Legal Adviser, Kelisiana Thy...

Too often the term “prisoner of war” (PoW) conjures up black-and-white images of soldiers detained in the Second World War. Recent events have brought PoWs back into the fore of the public consciousness, in particular how they must be treated and what rights they are entitled to in contemporary conflicts. For example, what is the role of social media in respecting their dignity? What is the role o...

As the armed conflict in Ukraine persists, rapidly unfolding events have entailed grave implications for civilians trapped in the crisis, such as death, injury and displacement from their homes and normal lives, to name but a few. In some areas in Ukraine, those who have remained in their homes have woken up to find that the areas in which they live are no longer under the control of the Ukrainian...

Silenced guns do not mend the lives of those who have survived the violence. Declarations of victory and the laying down of arms do not by themselves restore electricity and clean water; nor do they reconnect families with their missing or detained relatives; nor do they diffuse unexploded bombs; nor do they offer protection from the violent retribution of the victors. In this post, part of our se...

We have all seen the despair, dismay, and disaster of war. But what happens when the armed conflict appears to be over? It may be a time for peace, but there will often be pockets of hostilities, rogue forces, continuing damage, unexploded weapons that have not been removed, and lives that cannot go back to so-called normality. In this post, ICRC Senior Legal Adviser Kelisiana Thynne and ICRC’s He...

The uptake of gender considerations into military missions across the world has largely been uneven and incremental. This is likely due in part to the lack of an overarching theory of how gender is relevant to operations; a theory we could use to interrogate data sets and analysis to provide actionable intelligence. Operational risk is a promising candidate. In this post, part of a series on Gende...

Gender shapes an individual’s experience of armed conflict in complex ways, but trends can be predictable. In particular, women and girls contend with structural gender inequality, including in conflict contexts. Women and girls generally have fewer financial resources, less access to essential services and less representation in decision-making bodies. Military operations do not therefore take pl...

Recent media reports on prisoners of war (POWs) and deceased combatants have raised questions among journalists and the general public about how the Geneva Conventions regulate images and information related to military personnel in armed conflict. In this post, ICRC senior legal adviser Ramin Mahnad offers a brief explanation of the basic tenets of the Third Geneva Convention of 1949 and its proh...

The first prisoners of war (POWs) in the international armed conflict in Ukraine have been prosecuted and sentenced. These trials will herald hundreds, if not thousands more, as the sides to the conflict have stated their intention to hold POWs in their hands accountable for serious crimes: Russia has reportedly opened investigations into over 1,000 Ukrainian POWs, while the office of Ukraine’s ch...

In this post – part of our new series ‘Back to basics: humanitarian principles in contemporary armed conflict’ and released in tandem with Just Security – Fiona Terry, head of the ICRC’s Centre for Operational Research and Experience (CORE) explains her conversion from a neutrality sceptic to a genuine believer in the purpose and utility of retaining a neutral stance in war, based on first-hand ex...