Geneva Call

31/08/2026

A humanitarian organisation walks into a defence committee.

It is not a room that humanitarians are usually invited into, but engaging armed groups on the conduct of war belongs in the security conversation. These groups control territory and, often, the lives of the civilians living there. Reducing harm to civilians is inseparable from shaping the way armed groups operate. Persuading them to accept limits on how they fight is, therefore, vital.

On 2 September, Geneva Call's Director General Alain Délétroz and Director of Operations Atif Hameed will speak before the European Parliament's Committee on Security and Defence (SEDE) on the organisation's role and priorities, specifically across Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, the Sahel and Sudan.

The exchange will also turn to what is changing on the battlefield. Unmanned and autonomous weapons systems are altering how force is used and who bears the cost of it, and the trends are moving faster than the policy around them.

This will be relevant to anyone working on civilian protection, peacebuilding, or European security.

For those in Brussels wishing to attend in person, you can head to the Paul-Henri Spaak Building (PHS) within the European Parliament complex on the third floor (Room 3C050) where the session will be held.

The event will also be livestreamed at 9:15 CEST on the European Parliament’s streaming website. Link below.

bit.ly/45YpVQc

28/08/2026

Que signifie défendre les lois de la guerre lorsque le monde semble y croire de moins en moins ?

Dans un portrait publié par Swissinfo, notre Directeur général, Alain Délétroz, revient sur près d’une décennie au cœur du travail de l’Appel de Genève : dialoguer avec les groupes armés pour mieux protéger les populations civiles, en œuvrant à ce qu’ils respectent davantage le droit international humanitaire.

De l’Ukraine à Gaza en passant par le Soudan, nous sommes témoins d’une érosion préoccupante du respect des normes humanitaires. Et lorsque les États eux-mêmes ne respectent pas les règles auxquelles ils se sont engagés, convaincre les groupes armés de les respecter devient encore plus difficile.

C’est précisément pour cette raison que le dialogue reste essentiel.

Nous dialoguons avec les groupes armés non pas parce que nous soutenons leur cause, mais parce que les populations civiles ont besoin d’être protégées — quels que soient les acteurs impliqués dans un conflit.

Comme le souligne Alain Délétroz : « On ne discute pas des raisons pour lesquelles les gens se battent, mais de la manière dont ils le font et de leur responsabilité vis-à-vis des populations civiles. »

Aujourd’hui, nous dialoguons avec des groupes armés à travers le monde. Et même dans les contextes les plus complexes, nous continuons de constater que le changement est possible : les combattants peuvent adopter des règles, les commandants peuvent sanctionner les violations et les groupes peuvent prendre des mesures concrètes pour protéger les populations civiles.

C’est pourquoi nous continuons à nous engager.

À lire dans son intégralité dans Swissinfo.

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What does it mean to defend the laws of war when the world seems to believe in them less and less?

In a portrait published by Swissinfo, our Director General Alain Délétroz reflects on almost a decade at the heart of Geneva Call’s work: engaging with armed groups to better protect civilians by working to ensure that they respect International Humanitarian Law.

Across conflicts from Ukraine to Gaza and Sudan, we are witnessing a worrying erosion of respect for humanitarian norms. And when States themselves fail to uphold the rules they have committed to uphold, convincing armed groups to respect them becomes even harder.

This is precisely why dialogue matters.

We engage with armed groups not because we endorse their causes, but because civilians need protection — regardless of who the parties to a conflict are.

As Alain Délétroz puts it: “We don’t discuss the reasons why people fight, but rather how they fight and their responsibility towards civilian populations.”

Today, we are in dialogue with armed groups around the world. And even in complex contexts, we continue to see that change is possible: fighters can adopt rules, commanders can sanction violations, and groups can take concrete steps to protect civilians.

This is why we continue to engage.

Read more in Swissinfo (in French).

Rencontrez Alain Délétroz, le défenseur des Conventions de Genève qui sensibilise les groupes armés aux règles de la guerre. Portrait.

26/08/2026

Six rural communities in Arauca, Colombia came together to demand the implementation of IHL and the protection of civilians following dialogue facilitated by Geneva Call.

"All members of armed groups, regardless of rank, must comply with and respect the rules of International Humanitarian Law."

This is what 16 community leaders from six communities in rural Arauca, Colombia said to the armed groups in their territory after years of living with the consequences of the actions of those groups. Anti-personnel mines had destroyed families regardless of affiliation; local leaders were stigmatized after accusations of links to armed groups; and the line between civilian and combatant had been all but eroded.

What they needed was a way to collectively and publicly address the people responsible.

Coming together in a structured dialogue facilitated by Geneva Call, the 16 leaders developed and validated six collective messages grounded in IHL. Their work, which benefited an estimated 1,200 to 1,800 people, was rooted in previous IHL and humanitarian negotiation trainings delivered by Geneva Call.

Geneva Call guided the process and then stepped back to let the communities lead. And that’s exactly what they did.

https://www.genevacall.org/news/six-communities-in-rural-colombia-speak-with-one-voice-on-the-rules-of-war/

19/08/2026

Today is World Humanitarian Day.

It's a day to think about the people behind the headlines: the local responders and volunteers who keep showing up through conflict and crisis.

But the risk they carry isn't abstract. At least 326 aid workers were killed doing their jobs in 2025, and more than a thousand perished over the last three years in the line of duty. Most were locals, helping communities they were part of. That's why the day matters. It is a reminder of how far we still are from keeping these people safe. Our own part in it is often unseen: we carry principled dialogue with armed groups aimed at keeping civilians safe. Humanitarian workers are often caught in the middle of the fighting while doing their part to protect civilians. The work is entangled, painstakingly slow, and it takes many hands.

To everyone serving under impossible conditions today: we see you, and we stand with you.

05/08/2026

When we talk about accountability, we tend to jump straight to formal international legal mechanisms. Those matter, but they're not the whole picture.

In this short reflection, Geneva Call Head of Humanitarian Diplomacy and Communications Alexandre Munafò raises two things we often overlook while talking at a UN side meeting on civilian protection earlier this year.

Communities have their own ways of holding armed groups to account and those expectations often have little to do with the any formal mechanisms built by organisations in Geneva or New York.

And while we've become very good at documenting violations, we've built almost no space to recognise when a conflict party actually improves its behaviour. As he puts it: imagine a world where getting better earns you nothing.

So here's the challenge: what incentives can we create so that conflict parties know improvement in behaviour will be recognised? For Geneva Call, principled dialogue and the use of its tools, such as the Deeds of Commitment, are some of the ways to increase accountability and incentivize good behaviour among signatory parties.

29/07/2026

Two humanitarian workers were released in North Kivu in eastern DRC in 2025. They came back home to their families and communities. But what made that possible wasn't built in the moment.

Since 2014, Geneva Call has engaged 30 armed groups across the DRC. In 2025 alone, we held 37 bilateral meetings and 26 training sessions with 780 armed group members and leaders in those sessions, each one requiring enough trust to get them in the room.

In the same year, 5.3 million people were internally displaced in the DRC and 14.9 million needed humanitarian assistance. Across conflict-affected areas, 61 communities strengthened their own capacity to protect themselves.

This work rarely makes headlines. It builds quietly in anticipation of the moment it's needed. When that moment came in North Kivu, the relationship was already there.

Read our 2025 Annual Report to learn more.

https://www.genevacall.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Geneva_Call_Annual_Report_2025.pdf

22/07/2026

The rules of war exist to limit the suffering caused by armed conflict.

Barry Andrews, Chair of the European Parliament's Committee on Development, talks about why international humanitarian law still matters, and why, after a century of progress, the direction of travel has started to reverse.

His message is clear: The European Union must hold the line on protecting civilians and must back that commitment not only with words but with real financial support.

🎥 Watch the video to learn more!

15/07/2026

In South Sudan, 10 million people need humanitarian assistance. Civilians face killings, abductions, sexual violence, and the forced recruitment of their children.

Against this backdrop, something important happened in Juba.

The South Sudan Opposition Alliance (SSOA) signed five Unilateral Declarations committing to protect civilians, ban sexual violence, prohibit the use of starvation as a weapon of war, and safeguard children in armed conflict. They also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Geneva Call, setting out a concrete action plan for implementation by December 2026.

At the Senior Officers' IHL Training in Juba, SSOA's Chief of Staff addressed his own forces directly:

"These rules are not optional. They are orders that shall be issued within our command and must be respected by all our forces."

Geneva Call's Country Director in South Sudan, Ranjan Poudyal, put it simply:

"The scale of suffering in South Sudan demands urgent and sustained action. By working directly with SSOA, we are seeking to embed respect for civilians into their everyday practices and decision-making."

Geneva Call continues to work in South Sudan with all parties to the conflict in some of the country's most violence-affected areas. This moment matters. But what comes next matters even more.

Civilians in South Sudan continue to face severe humanitarian challenges. According to the 2026 UN OCHA South Sudan Humanitarian Response Plan (HNRP), an estimated 10 million people require assistance. Around 7.7 million or 57% of the population are experiencing high levels of acute ...

09/07/2026

Drones. Autonomous weapon systems. For millions of people living in conflict zones, the use of AI in war isn't a future scenario, it's already changing how war is being fought around them.

Yesterday, our Regional Head of Programme & Development for Eurasia Tina Gewis spoke at the AI for Good Global Summit on the use of AI in warfare and the urgency to regulate.

Her message afterwards was direct: the actors shaping and using this technology go well beyond states and armies. Armed groups and de facto or provisional authorities are also part of the picture, and any regulatory framework or policy that ignores them won't protect the people living under their control.