ICRC Humanitarian Law and Policy Blog

Эпизоды

• “A number that learned how not to scream”: the case for community-led metrics on protection 07.07.2026 15мин

  The international humanitarian system has built a sophisticated architecture for the protection of civilians, namely political resolutions, cluster coordination mechanisms, reporting frameworks, and accountability tools. Yet when conflict-affected people are asked directly whether they feel protected, or whether they trust the actors claiming to protect them, the answer is frequently at odds with the system’s own assessments. Despite commitments under the Grand Bargain to center local actors and affected communities, research consistently reveals a persistent gap between how humanitarian actors evaluate their own performance and how affected communities experience it. In this post, part of our ongoing series “Delivering for people in an evolving humanitarian landscape,” Imane Karimou argues that humanitarian protection faces a trust and legitimacy crisis that cannot be resolved through better coordination or increased funding alone. Drawing on community perception research and the experience of community-centered protection frameworks, she makes the case for reorienting how the system evaluates success, measuring protection through community-reported experiences of safety, trust, and dignity, rather than through system-generated indicators and outputs.
• Amplifying Pacific voices: the region’s crucial role in advancing IHL 02.07.2026 15мин

  Pacific Island states have long demonstrated leadership in promoting peace, disarmament, and humanitarian values. From traditional customs that reflect principles contained in contemporary international humanitarian law (IHL), to global advocacy for nuclear disarmament and environmental protections during armed conflict, the region is uniquely equipped to contribute to discussions on advancing IHL. This is particularly important in the context of contemporary challenges, including climate change, the illicit trade of small arms, cyber operations, and the vulnerability of submarine data cables that affect Pacific livelihoods. In this post, ICRC Legal Advisers Hannah Crothers and Catherine Thornton explore the importance of amplifying Pacific voices in the conversation on IHL, including through the Global Initiative to Galvanize Political Commitment to IHL, which provides a platform for states to contribute to the global discussion through sharing their experiences and insights.
• The shelter that shone in the distance | Written and Performed by Mamuch Bey 18.06.2026 4мин

  For the world's more than 120 million forcibly displaced people, the idea of refuge is not an abstraction – it is a horizon, an act of imagination, and sometimes the only thing that keeps hope alive. Yet as displacement becomes more protracted, more politicized, and more invisible to public attention, the language of solidarity risks being hollowed out. World Refugee Day, marked each year on 20 June, is a moment to resist that hollowing – to insist that the dignity and rights of displaced people are not seasonal concerns, and that solidarity is not a sentiment but a practice, one with concrete legal and humanitarian frameworks. In this post, the fourth in our ongoing series "Delivering for people in an evolving humanitarian landscape," we depart from our usual analytical format to share a poem. Written and performed by Mamuch Bey, "the shelter that shone in the distance" offers what legal and policy language often cannot: an interior account of displacement, the longing for protection, and what it means to reach – or fail to reach – safety. Timed to this year's World Refugee Day theme of solidarity with refugees, and its call to uphold dignity and stand up for the rights of displaced people, the poem is a reminder that behind every case, every crossing, and every camp is a person who once looked toward a shelter they hoped would hold them. Listen to more of Mamuch Bey's work on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/user/31bnjlzbyocnaelbup5zdmgxmqey
• African traditions and the protection of children in armed conflict 16.06.2026 12мин

  Across Africa, norms regulating the conduct of hostilities long predate the codification of modern international humanitarian law (IHL). The ICRC Tool on African traditions and the preservation of humanity in warfare highlights how many African societies developed rules limiting violence, protecting civilians, and preserving human dignity during conflict. These traditions resonate strongly with contemporary IHL principles and offer important insights for current efforts to protect children affected by armed conflict. At a time when children continue to face killing and maiming, attacks on schools and hospitals, recruitment, displacement, and profound psychological harm, grounding humanitarian protection in both legal obligations and culturally rooted values can strengthen efforts to uphold humanity during war. In this post, Professor Robert Doya Nanima, Member of the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, and Special Rapporteur on Children Affected by Armed Conflict, reflects on the relevance of the ICRC Tool through the lens of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. Drawing connections between African traditions, IHL, and African Union frameworks such as Agenda 2040 and Agenda 2063, he argues that the protection of children in conflict requires breaking down institutional silos and placing children at the center of humanitarian action.
• We helped individuals while harming persons: what conflict-affected communities deserve beyond beneficiary status 11.06.2026 14мин

  Conflict and displacement do more than destroy homes, livelihoods, and infrastructure. They also fracture the social relationships through which people sustain dignity, identity, and collective life. Yet humanitarian responses often focus primarily on individuals as beneficiaries, measured through categories of vulnerability, targeting, and service delivery. In many conflict settings, this approach can actively erode the communal bonds, local agency, and relational structures that communities themselves rely on to survive and recover. In this post, part of our new series “Delivering for people in an evolving humanitarian landscape”, Eberechukwu Owuamanam, Jesuit scholastic and humanitarian practitioner, draws on experiences from conflict-affected and disaster-affected communities in Nigeria, as well as African relational ontology, to argue that humanitarian action should move beyond models centered primarily on intervention and delivery. Drawing on concepts including Ubuntu, Igwebuike, and the Ijeluwa framework, he argues for approaches grounded in accompaniment, practice that strengthens, rather than replaces, the relational networks through which dignity and recovery become possible.
• Climate resilience is not optional: what people in fragile, urban settings should expect from WASH 09.06.2026 18мин

  Climate change is intensifying water insecurity in fragile urban settings, where ageing infrastructure, rapid urbanization, and inequality already strain access to essential services. In Peshawar, Pakistan, a city hosting generations of Afghan refugees and facing growing water scarcity, climate pressures have reduced river flow, damaged infrastructure for water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), and increased waterborne disease. These impacts fall most heavily on refugees, informal settlement residents, and other marginalized communities with limited access to safe and reliable water and sanitation services. In this post, part of our new series “Delivering for people in an evolving humanitarian landscape”, Sundus Tehreem Shahzad Khattak draws on qualitative research with government officials, residents and humanitarian practitioners in Pakistan to argue that effective, climate-resilient WASH projects do more than deliver services; they safeguard a spectrum of human rights, including dignity, safety from violence, and economic opportunity. She contends that meeting legitimate community expectations requires moving beyond siloed, short-term interventions toward formalized, multi-stakeholder collaboration that places local knowledge, gender responsiveness, and long-term sustainability at the centre of humanitarian action in an era of climate uncertainty and urban fragility.
• Life teaches before school does: the invisible curriculum of the super child 04.06.2026 12мин

  Refugee education is often framed in terms of access, infrastructure, and policy – but for children who grow up inside camps, meaningful learning begins long before they enter a classroom. It unfolds in everyday camp life: in caregiving roles, improvised survival strategies, and the small responsibilities that accelerate emotional maturity and practical skill. Imagination, resilience, and daily contribution form an “invisible curriculum” that shapes identity, agency, and social belonging, strengths that formal schooling in many crisis contexts can fail to acknowledge. In this post, the first in our new series “Delivering for people in an evolving humanitarian landscape”,  education specialist Sara Aleisseh draws on personal experience and years of professional work in humanitarian education to illustrate that the “invisible curriculum” carried by children in conflict settings is not a deficit to be corrected but a form of knowledge that demands recognition. She calls for education systems that listen to children’s realities, link learning content to those realities, protect their dignity, and build learning models rooted in healing, identity, and belonging.
• Why Africa should act now on explosive weapons in populated areas: Malawi’s case for action 28.05.2026 13мин

  Across contemporary armed conflicts, the use of explosive weapons in populated areas (EWIPA) has emerged as one of the gravest threats to civilians. Urban centres are increasingly sites of hostilities, where the use of explosive weapons with wide-area effects causes devastating and often predictable harm. In Africa, where rapid urbanization intersects with persistent insecurity in several regions, the humanitarian consequences are particularly acute. Civilians, essential infrastructure, and long-term development prospects are all at risk, raising urgent questions about how international humanitarian law (IHL) can be better implemented in practice. In this post, Brigadier General (Professor) Dan Kuwali, Chief Strategist, Commandant-Emeritus of the National Defence College-Malawi and Chairperson of the Malawi National International Humanitarian Law Committee, argues that African states should urgently endorse and implement the Political Declaration on EWIPA.  He argues that this approach is not only a humanitarian imperative, but also a strategic decision that strengthens civilian protection, enhances military credibility, and reinforces Africa’s collective voice in advancing responsible conduct in contemporary warfare.
• Collaboration without over-reliance: the role of industry in making military AI "lawful by design" 26.05.2026 11мин

  In the policy debate on artificial intelligence (AI) in the military domain, there is a growing consensus that international humanitarian law (IHL) must be a central consideration in the design of military AI systems. The imperative to make military AI systems “lawful by design” has, naturally, led to a sharper focus on the role of industry. But what this means in practical terms for AI suppliers – and how states can and should collaborate with industry to strengthen IHL compliance – remains an open question. In this post, Laura Bruun and Netta Goussac from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) argue that while focusing on IHL at the design stage makes sense, it carries the risk that states over-rely on industry to make military “lawful by design”. Efforts to elaborate what it means to make military AI “lawful by design” must be grounded in realistic expectations and limits, as well as clear legal responsibilities.
• Three lives, one vision: how Dunant, Demidoff and Abdelkader shaped modern humanitarianism 21.05.2026 17мин

  The brutal effects of war have long prompted efforts to limit suffering and preserve humanity in times of conflict. Across cultures, religions, and legal traditions, people have sought to restrain violence and preserve a measure of humanity in conflict. Yet the emergence of modern humanitarianism in the nineteenth century marked a turning point: compassion became increasingly organized, codified, and institutionalized. Against the backdrop of industrialized warfare, technological change, and growing public awareness of battlefield suffering, new forms of humanitarian action began to take shape. In this post, ICRC experts Anastasia Kushleyko, Cédric Cotter, and Ahmed Al-Dawoody revisit the contributions of Swiss businessman Henry Dunant, Russian philanthropist Anatole Demidoff, and Algerian scholar and leader Emir Abdelkader. Through their efforts to protect prisoners of war, care for the wounded, and uphold humane treatment during conflict, these three figures demonstrated that humanitarian principles were neither confined to one region nor rooted in a single tradition. The authors argue that modern humanitarianism emerged through converging ideas, networks, and practices across different societies, and that revisiting these histories can help reaffirm the universal character of humanitarian principles today.
• Enforced disappearances: universal responses to a worldwide phenomenon 12.05.2026 13мин

  Enforced disappearances remain an issue of profound seriousness, with lasting consequences for the families of those affected. These realities continue to raise complex legal and practical questions in criminal and human rights law at national, regional, and international levels.  This issue remains a priority for UN treaty bodies, Special Procedures, and the International Committee of the Red Cross. In this post, Milica Kolaković-Bojović, PhD, a Former Vice President of the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances and Prof. Grażyna Baranowska, the Vice-chair of the UN Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances, analyse a multidimensional approach to the phenomenon of enforced disappearance, its causes and roots, phenomenology, contexts of occurrence, and approaches to its eradication as being addressed in the edited volume Enforced Disappearances: On Universal Responses to a Worldwide Phenomenon, recently published by Cambridge University Press.
• Lebanon's wartime decision to ban anti-personnel mines 07.05.2026 11мин

  Lebanon’s accession last week to the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention (APMBC) comes not in a time of peace, but amid ongoing conflict – precisely when the consequences of inaction are most visible. In communities across the country, particularly in the south, anti-personnel mines are not relics of past wars, but active threats shaping daily life, obstructing return, and undermining recovery. Lebanon’s decision reflects a stark reality: weapons that continue to harm long after their use cannot be reconciled with the protection of civilians. In this post, Brigadier General Ziad Rizkallah of the Lebanese Army traces how Lebanon’s lived experience with contamination, clearance, and community recovery informed its choice to formalize long-standing practice into legal commitment. He underscores that drawing limits in conflict is neither theoretical nor deferred; it is grounded in operational reality, where the effects of certain weapons cannot be contained in time, space, or intent.
• Attacks on the medical mission: identification of issues and good practices 06.05.2026 15мин

  During the last decade, attacks against hospitals have been a hallmark of almost every conflict. What humanitarian medical practitioners have witnessed and denounced for years has become alarmingly routine. International humanitarian law (IHL) is sometimes criticized for failing to protect the very purpose that justified its own existence, particularly when the states responsible for its enforcement remain incapable or unwilling to stand up for the protection of medical facilities in armed conflicts. In this post, Claude Maon, Legal Director for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), highlights the need to build consensus around the specific protection of the medical mission under IHL. She calls for good faith interpretation in applying these rules to ensure the effective protection of hospitals by all actors in real situations of attack. In doing so, she underscores that attacks on hospitals are not inevitable and argues that this persistent trend of violations can only be reversed if states respect the law by adopting good operational practices to protect the medical mission, alongside ensuring accountability for attacks affecting medical facilities in armed conflict.
• Gender (re)balancing: the updated ICRC Commentary on the Fourth Geneva Convention 30.04.2026 18мин

  International humanitarian law (IHL) has long been critiqued for its gendered fault lines, specifically the marginalization of violence and harm to women and girls during armed conflict, laid bare by the lacunae of protection found in the normative content of the Geneva Conventions. The inadequacy of this normative protection finds a parallel in the Pictet Commentary, whose contours reflect patriarchy, entrenched gender stereotypes, and a lack of awareness of, and disregard for, the vulnerabilities, positionalities and participation of women in war. The limitations of the Fourth Geneva Convention (GC IV), in particular, have been substantively explored by feminist scholars over several decades. In this post, part of a joint symposium on the updated Commentary on the Fourth Geneva Convention with EJIL:Talk! and Just Security, Fionnuala Ní Aoláin undertakes a close examination of GC IV’s Article 27 on the treatment of protected persons, offering an assessment of the extent to which a revised and updated Commentary can overcome the Convention’s structural limitations. The answer, she suggests, is mixed. The Commentary is rigorous, expansive and determined, but it remains constrained by the text itself. While progressive interpretative developments help narrow the gap, they cannot fully remedy the gendered DNA of the Conventions as a whole, a challenge that will unfold over decades of sustained work.
• Upholding IHL protections against the risks of ICT activities in armed conflict 23.04.2026 20мин

  Across the world, essential civilian services increasingly depend on information and communication technologies (ICTs). These same technologies are also reshaping the conduct of armed conflict. As warfare becomes more digitalized, a critical question emerges: how can civilians be protected in an interconnected battlespace? Ensuring the faithful implementation of international humanitarian law in relation to ICT activities is central to this challenge. In this post, Wen Zhou, ICRC Legal Adviser with the Global Initiative to Galvanize Political Commitment to International Humanitarian Law (Global IHL Initiative), draws on discussions under the ICT workstream of the Initiative to highlight key humanitarian and legal questions arising from ICT activities in armed conflict, and to reflect ongoing efforts by states and other stakeholders to uphold the protections afforded by IHL and strengthen its implementation in practice.
• Complying with IHL in large-scale conflicts: movement, mass displacement and family links 16.04.2026 18мин

  By the end of 2024, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimated that 123.2 million people worldwide were forcibly displaced as a result of persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations and events seriously disturbing public order. If a large-scale conflict erupts, the intensity, scale and tempo of military operations will only worsen this trend, impacting not only those displaced but also receiving communities, and potentially those staying behind. International humanitarian law’s (IHL) rules seek to prevent displacement due to armed conflict – while respecting people’s agency and genuine will to move – and to reduce harms to civilians, including displaced populations.  In this post, part of the “Complying with IHL in large-scale conflict” series, ICRC Legal Advisers Matt Pollard and Helen Obregón explore the humanitarian challenges related to movement, mass displacement and the rupturing of family ties that would inevitably arise in such conflicts. It also looks at some of the practical measures that states can – and should – take to be prepared to meet these challenges and to comply with their obligations under IHL and under other relevant bodies of international law. Advance planning, already in peacetime, is essential for IHL to provide effective protection if such a conflict breaks out.
• Why Nordic governments must uphold the global ban on anti-personnel mines 02.04.2026 13мин

  As security concerns intensify across Europe following the escalation of the international armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine in 2022, several states – including Finland, Poland, and the Baltic countries – have moved to withdraw from the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention (APMBC), while similar calls have emerged in other Nordic countries. These developments reflect a growing perception that existing humanitarian disarmament commitments may constrain military effectiveness in a deteriorating security environment. Yet they also raise fundamental questions about the continued relevance of these commitments at a time when they are most needed. In this post, the Secretaries-General of the Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish Red Cross Societies argue that withdrawing from the APMBC would not enhance security but risk weakening civilian protection and eroding long-standing humanitarian norms. Drawing on legal, operational and humanitarian considerations, they show that anti-personnel mines remain inherently indiscriminate and of limited military utility, and that their prohibition is fully compatible with modern military cooperation frameworks. They call on the remaining Nordic governments to remain committed to the Convention even – and especially – in times of heightened insecurity.
• Restoring education after armed conflict: an IHL-guided framework 26.03.2026 16мин

  When armed conflict ends, education does not always return with it. In many post-conflict settings, schools remain closed long after ceasefires, while children stay at home, enter work, remain displaced or navigate unsafe environments. Education systems remain constrained by destroyed infrastructure, militarization, unexploded ordnance, trauma and fear. Although international humanitarian law (IHL) and international human rights law (IHRL) require the continuity of education even during armed conflict, schooling is frequently disrupted in practice, raising questions about how education can be safely restored after conflict. IHL regulates the conduct of hostilities and contains important protections for children and access to education during armed conflict. Lessons drawn from these protections can help inform recovery decisions as societies transition from conflict to peace, including after the cessation of hostilities, when recovery begins but IHL may still apply. In this post, as part of our Emerging Voices series, Geeta Mahapatra proposes a framework to facilitate children’s safe return to education, centred on child-specific harm assessments, safe access and inclusive recovery. It contends that stronger compliance with IHL rules protecting schools and children during armed conflict helps preserve the conditions necessary for restoring education in post-conflict settings.
• When the perpetrator is the climate 19.03.2026 14мин

  Climate change and armed conflict increasingly intersect in humanitarian settings. While the sector is now alert to climate-related risks – particularly in disaster response, resilience programming, and displacement governance – the ways these risks are interpreted and operationalized vary across institutional mandates and operational contexts. In protection practice within conflict-affected settings, climate impacts are still often framed primarily as “conflict multipliers” rather than direct drivers of civilian harm. This narrow lens risks overlooking the very insecurities communities experience most acutely: displacement, restricted movement, isolation, and livelihood collapse. In this post, researcher and former ICRC delegate Lina Aburas argues that our current conflict-centered analysis has a dangerous blind spot. Drawing on her experience in northeast Nigeria, she explores how communities define their own insecurity amid climate and conflict pressures. Practitioner and community perspectives reveal how climate-related hazards reshape mobility, access to livelihoods and assistance, and exposure to protection risks in ways not fully captured by prevailing conflict-centered analyses. Centering these lived experiences reveals that adapting humanitarian action isn’t about mission creep or expanding mandates; it’s about fundamentally shifting how we interpret and prioritize the risks already in front of us.
• Deciding under algorithms: artificial intelligence and the protection of civilian infrastructure in armed conflict 12.03.2026 15мин

  Artificial intelligence (AI)-based decision-support systems are increasingly embedded upstream of the use of force, shaping how military actors plan attacks, assessing effects, and anticipating harm. In contemporary urban warfare, where civilian infrastructure forms complex and deeply interconnected systems, these tools are increasingly used to guide decisions with far-reaching humanitarian consequences. This raises critical questions for international humanitarian law (IHL), which requires parties to anticipate and mitigate foreseeable civilian harm when applying the principles of proportionality and precaution, including indirect, cumulative and systemic effects on civilian infrastructure. In this post, independent legal researcher Yéelen Marie Geairon argues that while AI-enabled decision-support systems do not alter the legal rules governing attacks, they significantly reshape how foreseeability is operationalized in practice. By structuring what decision-makers are able to anticipate, compare and justify ex ante, AI systems recalibrate the factual basis of legal judgment, while also introducing new risks linked to data gaps, opacity and over-reliance on technical outputs. The protection of civilian infrastructure in AI-enabled warfare therefore depends less on technological performance than on the legal discipline, transparency and human judgment with which these tools are embedded in decision-making processes.