What are the ICRCs role and activities in relation to international humanitarian law?
The international community has long recognized the ICRC’s role in working for the understanding and dissemination of international humanitarian law. The institution also works towards its faithful application by, among other things, reminding parties to armed conflict of their legal obligations as reflected in treaties to which they are party, such as the Geneva Conventions, and under customary international law. Two further treaties relating to armed conflict are Protocol I Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and Protocol II Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 that were negotiated by States from 1974-1977 at an International Diplomatic Conference.Protocols I and II are international treaties to which the great majority of States are party (164 to Additional Protocol I and 160 to Additional Protocol II). The ICRC does not claim and has never claimed that any State that is not a party to these treaties is bound by them. However, significant portions of these Protocols
