Cordula Droege

80 years after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki: A call to eliminate nuclear weapons

So many ‚never again‘ are in peril today.

The only credible way to avoid nuclear war is the total elimination of nuclear weapons.

80 years after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki: A call to eliminate nuclear weapons www.icrc.org/en/statement...

Israel and the occupied territories: ICRC president calls for urgent collective action by states to end abhorrent suffering in Gaza

#Gaza:
All States have an obligation to respect and ensure respect for international humanitarian law #IHL, including by ensuring that the arms they transfer do not contribute to violations of IHL. 

www.icrc.org/en/statement...

Can you imagine a day without internet or telecommunication? For civilians in armed conflict zones, losing access to the internet or the ability to make a call isn’t just inconvenient: it's life-threatening. Under the rules of war, parties to conflict must not interfere with civilians’ access to connectivity.

When does disrupting connectivity cross a legal line at war?

From bombing a communication tower to national shutdowns, connectivity disruptions are frequent in armed conflicts.

Read more about the limits #IHL imposes on such acts: http://ms.spr.ly/63324sBMz2

"The brutal conflict in eastern DRC has trapped generations of civilians in a decades-long cycle of suffering, death and displacement. This declaration mediated by Qatar, combined with an agreement signed between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda in Washington DC last month, creates an important opportunity for the region to chart a new future rooted in peace and stability.”

DR Congo | We stand ready to help facilitate the release of people detained in relation to the conflict under a declaration agreed between the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the Congo River Alliance/M23 Movement (AFC/M23).

Read more: ms.spr.ly/63320sDR52

The number of surgical admissions for weapon wounds recorded at ICRC-supported hospitals in 2024 increased by almost 50% compared to 2023.

In 2024, we supported over 1,400 hospitals and health facilities, many of them in conflict affected areas.

Under the laws of war, the wounded and sick, medical staff, and hospitals are all protected.

Learn more about our health related activities 👉🏼 www.icrc.org/en/what-we-d...

Nigeria: “We go to bed hungry sometimes for two to three days”: Hunger deepens as farmers in conflict-affected northeast struggle to survive Every morning, a procession of villagers make their way from Dikwa, a town in northeastern Nigeria to farmlands, often several kilometres away, where they are able to cultivate crops for a few hours a...

Armed conflict, hunger and floods have plunged over 3.7 million civilians in northeast Nigeria into a relentless nightmare, where, for some communities, the search for food has become their daily struggle.

🎥 New media footage to download 👇🏼

www.icrcnewsroom.org/story/en/105...

ICRC voices: Life and Death in the Red Cross Field Hospital Skip to main content In a series of online articles, the ICRC team in London interviews British and Irish delegates working across the world. This month, we speak to Rieke Hayes, a physiotherapist from Ireland. After training in the NHS, she joined the ICRC in 2018, and has deployed to North Korea, Ukraine, Iraq, and Yemen.

Irish physiotherapist Rieke Hayes spent six weeks in Gaza, facing relentless mass casualty events, stray bullets, and shortages of vital equipment.

Her harrowing first-hand account reveals the reality of treating patients at the Red Cross Field Hospital 👇🏽

ms.spr.ly/63326sEEl0

Thank you @janethanderson.bsky.social and
@svdberg.bsky.social for inviting me to talk about the need to preserve healthcare in armed conflict and the IHL rules that ensure that they are respected and protected.

We must recommit to international law and humanitarian values: uphold bans, clear minefields, help survivors. Only through sustained global unity will we protect civilians from these hidden killers. Act now before it’s too late.

The Anti-Personnel Landmine Convention is one of the most successful treaties of the last years, having saved millions of lives, and led to the destruction of millions of stockpiles. Still, landmines continue to kill and maim. Weakening norms means ruining lives.

ICRC president: Civilians will pay the price if global commitment to ban landmines allowed to fracture

ICRC President Mirjana Spoljaric warns that if the global commitment to banning landmines fractures, civilians—especially those in conflict zones—will bear the brunt. Withdrawing from humanitarian law while preparing for war is the wrong choice.
www.icrc.org/en/news-rele...

Gaza now worse than hell on earth, humanitarian chief tells BBC The situation in Gaza surpasses "any acceptable, legal, moral, and humane standard", the ICRC tells BBC's Jeremy Bowen.

We are watching a people entirely stripped of its human dignity

www.bbc.com/news/article...

Cluster munitions kill men, women and children indiscriminately, long after conflicts have ended.
Their production and use should be ended.

We face not only a crisis of compliance with international humanitarian law #IHL , but of our collective conscience.
If you don't defend #IHL today, you are accepting a world where wars are fought with increasing barbarity and disregard for our shared humanity.
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Huge thanks to all participants, expert speakers, and our dedicated co-chairs Luxembourg, Mexico and Switzerland for their leadership and support. Your engagement gives this process its strength.
Next up: the second consultation of the ICT workstream later this year.
@lucdockendorf.bsky.social

Discussions revealed areas of emerging convergence, especially on the need to:
✔️ Protect medical services & humanitarian ops
✔️ Safeguard civilian critical infrastructure & data
✔️ Address civilian involvement in ICT operations

The ICT workstream is about fostering shared understandings on how #IHL imposes limits to ICT activities in armed conflict — with the goal of safeguarding civilians from the risks of harm.

As warfare becomes increasingly digitalized, civilians face new risks:
- Disruption of critical civilian infrastructure and data
- Spread of harmful information
- Involvement of civilians & tech infrastructure in ICT activities

On 15 May the first state consultation of the ICT workstream under the #GlobalIHL Initiative brought together over 100 States and key organizations — in Geneva and online. A few key takeaways 🧵

❗️Come and join the Legal Division of the @ICRC!

✴️ Turn your vision for a better world, your belief in justice and humanity, in the protective power of the law, into #IHL advocacy.

careers.icrc.org/job/Geneva-%...

Complying with IHL in large-scale conflicts: detention operations in international armed conflicts Complying with IHL in large-scale detention operations during IACs, and the preparatory measures states must undertake before the conflict.

When preparing for large-scale conflict, states should plan for detention operations.
W/o proper institutions, infrastructures and trained personnel ready, they risk failing to meet legal obligations, compromising detainees’ rights once hostilities erupt.
blogs.icrc.org/law-and-poli...

Thank you Ambassador Schweitzer from Austria, Ambassador Roper from Australia and Ms Nzioki from Kenya for co-chairing this workstream and taking leadership on this question of prevention, which lies at the core of compliance with #IHL.

Today multiple States shared measures to help prevent IHL violations.
What can we do today to anchor IHL deeply into societies, states, militaries?
Important discussions during the workstream consultations for Prevention Good Practices in the Global IHL Initiative.

The gap between #IHL norms and the reality of violations of international humanitarian law in conflicts is glaring.
Ratifications, teaching, training, criminal law must translate into compliance on the frontline. What can states do better and differently to prevent #IHL violations?

Not that the humanitarian response can in any way make up for the hell on earth that is Gaza today… only the parties to the conflict can chose whether to let civilians live or die. They are the ones bound by international humanitarian law.

The Global Initiative on #IHL seeks to boost political commitment and promote its universal, uniform and faithful application, and to deepen reflections on contemporary challenges.
Statement from initiating states and co-chairs of the workstreams:
www.icrc.org/en/statement...

International humanitarian law #IHL protects family life and the right of families to know the fate of their loved ones.
Conflict parties must take measures to avoid separation of families and from persons going missing, and to reunite families when their are torn apart.

Human-centred #AI: while certain technical tasks may be carried out by machine processes, it is not the system itself that must comply with the law, but the humans using it. @ICRC's recommendations for AI decision-support systems 👇

t.co/6CeOgnxLIF

The number of missing persons and suffering endured by their families is a measure of the failure of respect for international humanitarian law in wars. Peace for these families is not just the end of conflict. The fate of missing persons must be a priority on the way to peace.

With too many wars raging and tensions rising, we must uphold international humanitarian law and the vision of a mine-free world

Our common future rests on upholding, not weakening, international humanitarian law & the vision of a mine-free world.
@ICRC, @ifrc & Red Cross Societies of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Norway, Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden on withdrawal from the Mine Ban Convention:
www.icrc.org/en/news-rele...