We may need more humanitarian bureaucracy, not less

February 4, 2021 5 mins read Accountability / Analysis / Humanitarian Action / Humanitarian Principles Aaron Clark-Ginsberg & Mary Kate Adgie

In the humanitarian sector, bureaucracy has been faulted for everything from ageism and the suppression ...

IHL in action: seven patterns of respect

November 19, 2020 15 mins read Analysis / Generating Respect for IHL / Humanitarian Action / Influencing Behaviour in Armed Conflict / Law and Conflict Juliane Garcia Ravel & Madalena Vasconcelos Rosa

While violations of international humanitarian law (IHL) are seemingly pervasive and remain a brutal reality ...

The future is now: time to scale up climate mitigation and adaptation measures

February 6, 2020 8 mins read Analysis / Climate Change and Conflict / Humanitarian Action Cécile Aptel

Far from a distant threat, climate change is already a crisis, contributing to extreme weather ...

Three reasons why education needs the support of humanitarian actors in conflict zones

December 12, 2019 10 mins read Analysis / Children in conflict / Education in Armed Conflict / Humanitarian Action / Humanitarian Principles / Protracted Conflict Filipa Schmitz Guinote

This week, the ICRC and the IFRC held a side event on education at the ...

Two truths and a lie: seventy years of the Geneva Conventions

November 14, 2019 7 mins read Generating Respect for IHL / Humanitarian Action / Law and Conflict / The most read blog posts in 2019 Jean-Marie Henckaerts

This year’s anniversary of the Geneva Conventions provides the space for humanitarian practitioners and legal ...

How humanitarians safeguard the law of armed conflict

October 25, 2016 7 mins read Humanitarian Action / Law and Conflict The editors

In situations of armed conflicts and violence across the world, humanitarian actors operate amidst recurring violations of international humanitarian law (IHL). Not only ...

The establishment of courts by armed groups: what is the legal basis?

October 11, 2016 10 mins read Analysis / Law and Conflict Ezequiel Heffes

While the law of armed conflict is understood as granting armed groups the possibility to install judicial mechanisms in order to pass judgments ...

Leaving people behind: Impartiality’s forgotten clause

May 18, 2016 6 mins read World Humanitarian Summit Marc DuBois

In the words of the UN Secretary General, ‘Leaving no one behind’ “is a central aspiration of most political, ethical or religious codes ...

South Sudan