What are cluster munitions? Why are cluster munitions of such concern from a humanitarian perspective? How many countries produce and stockpile cluster munitions? How many countries have used cluster munitions? Can self-destruct mechanisms and other technical improvements solve the cluster munition problem?

The International Movement of the Red Cross and Red Crescent is made of several different components all guided by the same seven Fundamental Principles: humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity and universality.

This month the ICRC announced the award of the Florence Nightingale Medal to three Red Cross staff for their courage and devotion in caring for the victims of the January earthquake in Haiti. The Delegation welcomes the ICRC's new executive management team. We look at diversity within the ICRC, which today comprises more than 128 nationalities. And lastly, we share the latest ICRC video, which encourages you to "become part of the action."

What is known and what is needed? Who are the victims off cluster munitions? What help do cluster munition victims need? Are cluster munition victims getting the help they need?

Where are cluster munitions? What is their legacy? Which States and areas are most affected by cluster munitions? What challenges arise in areas affected by cluster munitions?

The Convention is an important addition to international humanitarian law. It establishes new rules to ensure that cluster munitions are no longer used and that the existing humanitarian problems associated with these weapons are addressed. Importantly, the Convention has specific provisions which aim to meet the needs of victims and affected communities.

Lebanon is one of the 107 States that signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which entered into force today. Four years after the five-week conflict in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah, unexploded cluster munitions continue to kill and maim civilians. Israel used cluster munitions containing up to four million individual bomblets, of which hundreds of thousands failed to explode on impact. These devices contaminated an area of 43 square kilometres in and around the villages of southern Lebanon.

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Geneva / Kabul (ICRC) – The entry into force of the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 1 August 2010 is a major step towards putting an end to the terrible suffering those weapons have caused for decades, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said today.

Despite some recent improvements, Iraq's health-care services are still struggling to cope. The ICRC is engaged in a wide range of initiatives aimed at helping them to respond to emergencies. This is an update on activities carried out in the country in May and June.

This list presents the latest additions to the library’s collection of books and articles.

Despite some recent improvements, Iraq's health-care services are still struggling to cope. The ICRC is engaged in a wide range of initiatives aimed at helping them to respond to emergencies. This is an update on activities carried out in the country in May and June.

Tehran/Baghdad (ICRC) – The mortal remains of two Iranian soldiers killed during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq War were repatriated today at the Shalamjah border crossing, near Basra, under the auspices of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

From 28 to 30 June forensic doctors from virtually all Mexican states and from the Federal District took part in the First National Meeting of Forensic Medical Services: the management of unidentified bodies, which was organized by the ICRC and the Federal District Supreme Court of Justice. In this interview, Dr Morris Tidball-Binz, forensic coordinator at the ICRC, talks about the importance of dealing correctly with dead bodies and identifying them.

ICRC agronomist Jean Cimanga regularly travels around Equateur province in the north-west of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where the ICRC has just been distributing seed. He talks about the situation of the people living there, who are still suffering from the effects of the inter-community violence which occurred at the end of 2009 and the subsequent clashes between armed groups and the national armed forces.

The Nepalese peace agreement dates from 2006. But four years on, the ICRC is still helping people deal with the aftermath. Working with the Nepalese Red Cross, the ICRC is helping families find out what has happened to missing relatives, getting mine victims back into society and pressing for international humanitarian law to be included in the new Nepalese constitution. ICRC Head of Delegation Patrick Vial explains.

Media professionals are increasingly at risk of being wounded, killed, detained or kidnapped while reporting in armed-conflict situations. Robin Geiss, an ICRC legal expert, talks about the protection to which they, as civilians not taking part in the fighting, are entitled under international humanitarian law.

So far in 2010, over 2,000 people have been injured and 930 killed in bomb blasts across Pakistan. To help the country's emergency services deal with the high number of wounded, the ICRC and the Pakistan Red Crescent Society have trained journalists in first aid. The sessions in Peshawar were specifically designed for tribal journalists working in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).

Islamabad/Geneva (ICRC) – The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is providing training in first aid for journalists from Pakistan working in violence-affected areas.

Baghdad (ICRC) – The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is helping more than 64,000 destitute Iraqis through the holy month of Ramadan by providing them with food and hygiene items.

Celebration of the 40th anniversary of the International Institute of Humanitarian Law (IIHL), Sanremo, Italy, 9-11 September 2010.
Global violence is a universal scourge threatening the lives of millions of people all over the world and representing one of the major challenges of the 21st Century. The IIHL and the ICRC aim at reviewing some of the legal and practical challenges posed by contemporary armed conflicts and other situations of violence, in particular for the actors involved in deprivation of liberty.

The latest Board member of the ICRC’s Special Fund for the Disabled is no stranger to disability. Charlotte McClain-Nhlapo has an extraordinary background, including playing a key role in the development of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. She explains why the convention is remarkable in so many ways, and talks about the specific and significant role the Special Fund has to play.

in the field

Panama City (ICRC) – Juan Carlos Varela Rodríguez, Panama's vice-president and foreign minister, and Karl Mattli, who heads the regional delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) for Mexico, Central America and Cuba, today signed an agreement to establish an ICRC office in Panama.

Geneva/Kinshasa (ICRC) – The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Red Cross Society of the Democratic Republic of the Congo today began to distribute food to 53,000 people who have fled their villages in the Democratic Republic of the Congo since mid-July. The villagers have been displaced by military operations pitting the Congolese armed forces against an armed group to the north-east of Lake Kivu near the border with Uganda. Most of the displaced have been taken in by host families in and near the city of Oicha; others have been accommodated in schools and churches.

Geneva/Kinshasa/Kampala (ICRC) – The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has reunited 14 Congolese children aged three to 17 years with their families in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Host families had been temporarily looking after the children in refugee camps in Uganda. Some of the children had been separated from their parents for as long as a year.

Heavy flooding in conflict-affected northern and western Afghanistan has forced thousands to flee their homes and seek shelter elsewhere. The ICRC and the Afghan Red Crescent provided emergency aid for over 40,000 people – many of them in dangerous or remote areas – in May and June.