Support for global initiative for international humanitarian law (IHL), to upholding humanity in war

In September 2024, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) together with six founding states, namely Brazil, France, China, Jordan, Kazakhstan and South Africa launched a global initiative to galvanise political commitment to international humanitarian law (IHL) which shall culminate with a High-Level Meeting to Uphold Humanity in War in 2026. Following several rounds of global and regional consultations over the past year in which more than 130 states have participated, the ICRC on 16 October 2025 launched the initiative’s progress report in Geneva which summarises concrete proposals from the states on how to strengthen the respect for IHL, including by updated military training, stronger national accountability mechanisms or by identifying risk factors that heighten the likelihood of violations. As of end-October, 93 states have joined the initiative, including the six founding members and the 27 co-chairs for thematic work streams. As one of the co-chairs, Germany is helping to explore how national IHL committees can be bolstered to further support their governments to fulfil their IHL obligations.