The discussion will be a taking stock of Helen Durham's last eight years as Director of International Law & Policy at the ICRC, reflecting on law and policy evolutions during her mandate and laying out the issues and challenges that lie ahead. We will also touch up on a personal look at her broader career in international law and her advice for young professionals.

Episode 2: Humanitarian law and policy - a reflection with Helen Durham

Worldwide, millions of people are already facing the harsh reality of climate and environmental crises, which act as a risk magnifier and compound the impacts of other global economic, health and food crises. Launched by the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement in 2021, the Climate and Environment Charter for Humanitarian Organizations guides the sectoral approach to the increasing risks of climate change and how to address its own carbon and environmental footprint.

In this post, Dr. Alistair D. B. Cook, Coordinator of Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief for the Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies, draws from discussions during a recent workshop co-hosted by the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore and the Movement on the state of play in climate action for humanitarian actors operating in Southeast Asia and the role the Charter has played so far in addressing current and future crises.

Climate change, environment and humanitarian action in Southeast Asia

Next week marks the 75th anniversary of the four Geneva Conventions of 1949. Against a backdrop of over 120 armed conflicts worldwide, this should prompt us not to celebrate, but to reflect: how were these now universally accepted humanitarian norms drafted, and are they still fit for purpose today?

In this post, ICRC Legal Adviser Ellen Policinski examines how the Geneva Conventions are interpreted and applied today, providing concrete examples from the ICRC’s updated Commentaries. She goes on to investigate the recurring critique that international humanitarian law (IHL) is somehow outdated, examining who benefits from the narrative that the Geneva Conventions and IHL more generally are not appropriate legal tools to govern armed conflicts today.

War’s long legacy: the continued importance of the Geneva Conventions 75 years later

Algorithmic bias has long been recognized as a key problem affecting decision-making processes that integrate artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. The increased use of AI in making military decisions relevant to the use of force has sustained such questions about biases in these technologies and in how human users programme with and rely on data based on hierarchized socio-cultural norms, knowledges, and modes of attention.

In this post, Dr Ingvild Bode, Professor at the Center for War Studies, University of Southern Denmark, and Ishmael Bhila, PhD researcher at the “Meaningful Human Control: Between Regulation and Reflexion” project, Paderborn University, unpack the problem of algorithmic bias with reference to AI-based decision support systems (AI DSS). They examine three categories of algorithmic bias – preexisting bias, technical bias, and emergent bias – across four lifecycle stages of an AI DSS, concluding that stakeholders in the ongoing discussion about AI in the military domain should consider the impact of algorithmic bias on AI DSS more seriously.

The problem of algorithmic bias in AI-based military decision support systems

The development of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies brings significant opportunities, and risks, for principled humanitarian action. While AI innovations advance at a pace that seemingly defies human capabilities to manage them responsibly, humanitarian organizations are chasing ‘AI for Good’, and struggling to find effective safeguards.

In this post, ICRC Senior Policy Adviser Pierrick Devidal reflects on some of the lessons from the ICRC’s experience in building its recently adopted AI Policy, with the hope that it can inform other efforts to build an ethical and responsible approach to the use of AI in the humanitarian sector.

Trying to square the circle: the ICRC AI Policy

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Humanitarian Law & Policy blog is a unique space for timely analysis and debate on international humanitarian law (IHL) issues and the policies that shape humanitarian action.

The problem of algorithmic bias in AI-based military decision support systems

ICRC Humanitarian Law & Policy Blog

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