https://www.icrc.org/en/report/icrc-annual-report-2025
The year 2025 was marked by the consequences of more than 130 armed conflicts on the lives of people around the world. Protracted conflicts and fresh emergencies led to injuries, death and displacement, often on a large scale. Families were separated, and loved ones went missing. Communities had little to no access to food, water, health care and other basic necessities.
The erosion of respect for international humanitarian law (IHL) – with selective interpretations of, or even outright disregard for, these rules – exacted a devastating human toll. Furthermore, the use of new technologies in warfare, including artificial intelligence, posed growing risks. At the same time, the entire humanitarian sector faced a sharp and sustained decline in funding.
In this challenging environment, we remained steadfast in delivering on our mandate. Protecting people affected by conflict and other violence remained central to our work, as we responded to emergencies of growing scale and complexity. We advanced the promotion of IHL, working to restore respect for the law and ensure that the Geneva Conventions remain a lifeline for those most acutely affected by conflict.
Key achievements in 2025
We held dialogue with around 139,800 personnel from the military, police, security forces and armed groups on IHL and issues of humanitarian concern, promoting protection for civilians and compliance with the law.
About 100 states had joined the Global IHL Initiative at year’s end. Together with these states, we discussed urgent challenges to IHL, and worked to develop concrete and practical recommendations to address these challenges on the ground.
We enabled family members to restore or maintain contact with each other, by collecting some 92,800 Red Cross messages (RCMs), distributing about 73,200 RCMs, and facilitating over 1.46 million phone calls.
We visited 557 places of detention/internment holding over 678,300 people deprived of their liberty to help ensure that they were being treated humanely.
We supported 669 hospitals in providing life-saving care to wounded and sick people. ICRC mobile surgical teams bolstered the delivery of urgently needed care in some of these hospitals.
We improved access to clean water, shelter and more sanitary surroundings – often working with local partners – for 33.53 million people.
Steadfast support from our donors and partners
We sustained our operations with the support of our partners and donors, who contributed around 1.76 billion Swiss francs for our work, of which 1.53 billion Swiss francs was for field operations and 227.5 million Swiss francs for headquarters; 45% of this was flexible funding, allowing us to respond when and where we were needed most.
84% Governments and the European Commission
13% Private and public sources
2% Supranational organizations and international institutions
1% International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement
Read the Annual Report
For more highlights, please see the Annual Report 2025: Overview.
The full Annual Report 2025 can be downloaded from the ICRC’s online library:
