When the competent authorities do not take or are unable to take appropriate measures (owing to lack of means, unwillingness, or when no such authorities exist), the ICRC takes direct action in their place (substitution) to meet the needs of the people or populations affected.

Part of the inventories covering the ICRC’s public archival series is available for information on this website in PDF format (see above). However, we advise users to search through the Archives Portal Europe, which offers more exhaustive research functionality.

Since the outbreak of the armed conflict in Yemen in 2015, the ICRC has been assisting those affected by it by providing clean water, health care and other relief.

Over the past 13 years, the ICRC has registered 35,000 cases of missing persons in Syria (with a further 8,000 cases registered in January 2025 alone) — a figure that reflects only the families who have sought our help.

In Kenya, we work with the Kenya Red Cross Society to help families separated by armed conflict, other situations of violence, arrest and detention, natural disasters or migration re-establish and/or maintain contact.

In Ethiopia, the ICRC works closely with the Ethiopian Red Cross to support conflict and violence-affected people with food and essential items, helps to establish livelihoods and incomes, builds and maintains water-supply systems, provides health structure with medical supplies, visits detainees, reunites separated families, provides physical rehabilitation and promotes IHL.

The ICRC has carried out its humanitarian work in Lebanon through several periods of armed conflict, including the 1975–1990 civil war. Currently we are helping to meet the rapidly growing needs of people who have fled war and other violence across …

The ICRC is funded by voluntary contributions. We receive contributions from the States party to the Geneva Conventions (governments), national Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, supranational organizations (such as the European Commission) and public and private sources.

The ICRC has been working in the Philippines since the Second World War, with a permanent presence established in 1982. Working often in partnership with the Philippine Red Cross, we strive to protect the life and dignity of people affected by the protracted armed conflicts in …

We registered 40,000 new tracing requests from people searching for missing loved ones – the highest annual figure in 20 years. This came on top of hundreds of thousands of open cases from previous years.