The year 2005 was a significant year in terms of the development, elucidation and enforcement of international humanitarian law. It saw the adoption of a Third Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions introducing a third protective emblem, the publication by the International Committee of the Red Cross (hereafter, ICRC) of its much anticipated study of customary international humanitarian law, and the first ever referral of a situation by the United Nations Security Council (hereafter, Council) to the International Criminal Court.

These positive developments contrasted with widespread violations of humanitarian law in a number of major and minor armed conflicts and in the context of the so-called ‘war on terrorism’.