IHL Centre Highlights 2025

The IHL Centre is pleased to publish its first annual highlights publication, summarising key global and regional achievements and examples of the impact of our work last year.

2025 was a milestone year for the Centre.

We reintroduced ourselves as the IHL Centre, with a new visual identity and strategic framing.

We launched the Stockholm Manual – an innovative practical guide to conducting IHL assessments and strengthening humanitarian advocacy – and launched it officially in Stockholm, New York and Brussels, engaging and training humanitarian actors, diplomats, donors, policymakers and other key stakeholders.

We also finalised our report on Inclusive IHL: Closing the Gaps in Humanitarian Protection, working with members of our Expert Group to explore how IHL can be interpreted and applied more inclusively.

For the first time, we attended Protection of Civilians Week and organised an official side event at International Law Week in New York, bringing together leading voices from the humanitarian, legal and academic community, to discuss how to push back against violations of IHL and drive more principled and effective humanitarian advocacy.

And throughout the year, our teams continued working across more than 15 conflict-affected contexts, providing independent legal advice and guidance, supporting humanitarian actors, diplomats and policymakers in their humanitarian diplomacy and advocacy efforts. We also contributed expert analysis and commentary to a wide range of international media outlets including the BBC, Al Jazeera and ARD.

Our first annual highlights publication brings together some of these milestones and, more importantly, examples of how our work is helping to bridge the gap between legal norms and the operational realities of armed conflict.

Click below to download the full publication: