Upholding IHL protections against the risks of ICT activities in armed conflict

Across the world, essential civilian services increasingly depend on information and communication technologies (ICTs). These same technologies are also reshaping the conduct of armed conflict. As warfare becomes more digitalized, a critical question emerges: how can civilians be protected in an interconnected battlespace? Ensuring the faithful implementation of international humanitarian law in relation to ICT activities is central to this challenge. In this post, Wen Zhou, ICRC Legal Adviser with the Global Initiative to Galvanize Political Commitment to International Humanitarian Law (Global IHL Initiative), draws on discussions under the ICT workstream of the Initiative to highlight key humanitarian and legal questions arising from ICT activities in armed conflict, and to reflect ongoing efforts by states and other stakeholders to uphold the protections afforded by IHL and strengthen its implementation in practice.

You can listen to Upholding IHL protections against the risks of ICT activities in armed conflict online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Upholding IHL protections against the risks of ICT activities in armed conflict is an episode from ICRC Humanitarian Law and Policy Blog by ICRC Humanitarian Law & Policy Blog.

This episode is 00:20:20 long.

This episode was published on Apr 23, 2026.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from ICRC Humanitarian Law and Policy Blog when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.