Strengthening the guardrails of humanity: IHL at the heart of peacebuilding

The discussion, held under the framework of the Global IHL Initiative - launched in 2024 by Brazil, China, France, Jordan, Kazakhstan, and South Africa in partnership with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) - highlighted the urgent need to strengthen the implementation of IHL and reaffirm its universal principles. The initiative has since grown to include 93 participating states, working together to ensure that the rules of war remain a lifeline for civilians trapped in conflict.

A decade of unprecedented destruction

ICRC President Mirjana Spoljaric described the gravity of today’s global landscape: between 120 and 130 armed conflicts are now active worldwide, with ten new conflicts emerging in just three years. From Sudan to Gaza, Ukraine to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the human toll continues to rise. 

“IHL doesn't prevent war, but it prevents barbarity in war,” said President Spoljaric. “And this is important, and this is why we cannot allow ourselves to apply double standards. We have to treat a human life as a human life, no matter on which side of the frontline you find yourself, because that's the guarantee to ever be able to return to a pathway to peace.”

She warned that dismantling the legal and moral guardrails that prevent total collapse into inhumanity would delay recovery for generations. “If you break and dismantle the guardrails that prevent total barbarity from happening, then it will take a much longer time – generations - before you can come back to normalcy,” she added.

Turning commitments into action

The Global IHL Initiative aims to make IHL tangible through seven workstreams that translate legal norms into concrete measures. Three focus on prevention, peacebuilding, and national implementation of IHL, while four others address concrete ways to improve the protection of civilians, by looking for instance at the protection of civilian infrastructure, healthcare and the responsible use of cyber capabilities.

Over the past year, the initiative has conducted over a dozen consultations with 130 states and 27 co-chairs leading these workstreams, an unprecedented show of international cooperation around the laws of war.

Protecting civilians amid growing violations

Panelists voiced deep concern over the growing disregard for the basic tenets of IHL - distinction, proportionality and precaution. Civilians are being deliberately targeted, humanitarian access denied, and medical facilities attacked in multiple theaters of conflict.

Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot of France called for limiting the use of veto power in the UN Security Council during mass atrocities, to ensure that political paralysis does not cost lives. Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares Bueno emphasized the need for coherence, applying the same humanitarian standards universally, “whether in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, or elsewhere.”

The EU Special Representative for Human Rights, Kajsa Ollongren, underscored that accountability begins during conflict, not after: “Gathering evidence now ensures that post-conflict justice is possible later - and that impunity does not take root.”

Humanitarian action as the first step towards peace

For the ICRC, adherence to IHL is not only about minimizing suffering—it also lays the groundwork for peace.

“What we see on the ground, and we are directly involved now in Gaza, in the DRC, in Thailand, in Cambodia, in Sudan, and in many other places, is that the first steps to peace are always humanitarian,” said President Spoljaric.

She explained that humanitarian actions often serve as confidence-building measures: “It begins with safe passage or increased access for humanitarian assistance, but most often it starts with the exchange of detainees. You exchange detainees, you release hostages, you bring back prisoners, often even before a ceasefire is fully consolidated. Doing so helps uphold the ceasefire and creates the space needed to move into larger political conversations.”

Guarding humanity in war

The consensus emerging from Paris was clear: IHL remains one of humanity’s last shared frameworks in an increasingly fragmented world. Upholding it is not an abstract legal exercise - it is an act of moral and political necessity.

As President Spoljaric concluded, “Without these guardrails, wars will not only destroy lives, they will destroy the very possibility of peace.”