Red Cross: record number of armed conflicts since World War II

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François Picard is pleased to welcome the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Mirjana Spoljaric. “War may be a human condition. But barbarity is not”: The Red Cross warns of a dangerous erosion of the rules of war

War may be an enduring feature of human history, but its brutality is neither inevitable nor beyond restraint. That distinction lies at the heart of a stark warning from Mirjana Spoljaric, President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), who argues that the international rules established to protect civilians are being progressively weakened amid proliferating armed conflicts, technological transformations and the retreat of diplomacy.

“You may consider war a human condition,” Spoljaric tells France 24. “But brutality, barbarity, is not a human condition.” Her warning recalls the fundamental premise of the 1949 Geneva Conventions: even in war, there can be no lawless space, and certain red lines must never be crossed.

Yet from Gaza and Ukraine to Sudan and Yemen, Spoljaric describes an increasingly permissive interpretation of international humanitarian law, in which civilian infrastructure is attacked, populations are displaced and human suffering becomes an instrument of military strategy. “So humans are instrumentalized in the pursuit of military objectives,” she observes.

The proliferation of drones and artificial intelligence adds another troubling dimension. Technologies once presented as instruments of greater military precision have not, she argues, delivered the promised protection for civilians. Instead, they risk further diminishing the possibility of escaping violence, while the prospect of autonomous weapons targeting human beings raises urgent legal and ethical questions.

But Spoljaric's deepest concern extends beyond the battlefield. As conflicts increasingly cross borders and humanitarian needs overwhelm available resources, diplomacy itself appears to be retreating. Her message is ultimately political: humanitarian assistance cannot substitute for the prevention of war, and the protection of civilians cannot depend on goodwill alone.

The responsibility, she insists, belongs to governments and citizens alike. “As a citizen, demand that your government prioritize the rules of war,” she urges, warning that “wars are coming to your doorstep nowadays much, much faster than in previous years.”