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An authoritative survey of 23 armed conflicts over the last 18 months has concluded that international law seeking to limit the effects of war is at breaking point, with more than 100,000 civilians killed, while torture and rape are committed with near impunity.
The extensive study by the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights describes the deaths of 18,592 children in Gaza, growing civilian casualties in Ukraine and an “epidemic” of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Such is the scale of violations, and the lack of consistent international efforts to prevent them, that the study, entitled War Watch, concludes that international humanitarian law is at “a critical breaking point”.
Stuart Casey-Maslen, the lead author, said: “Atrocity crimes are being repeated because past ones were tolerated. Our actions – or inaction – will determine whether international humanitarian law vanishes altogether.”
The laws of armed conflict were developed extensively after the end of the second world war, including through the 1949 Geneva conventions. A key aim was to protect civilians from the consequences of civil wars and conflicts between states.
War Watch surveyed 23 armed conflicts around the world between July 2024 and the end of 2025, and is a counterpoint to claims by Donald Trump to have ended eight wars during his year in office.
The research concludes: “We do not know how many civilians have been killed in the conduct of hostilities during armed conflicts in 2024 and 2025, but we do know that the number is well over 100,000 in each of the two years.”
The result is that “serious violations of international humanitarian law (IHL) were wrought”, the report continues, “on a huge scale and with rampant impunity” – while efforts to seek war crimes prosecutions have been limited in response.
One of the most deadly conflicts was in Gaza. Israel relentlessly attacked the Palestinian territory with airstrikes and ground incursions during the two-year war that began with Hamas’s 7 October 2023 assault.
Gaza’s total population “fell by about 254,000 people, a 10.6% decline compared with pre-conflict estimates”, the research notes. Although a ceasefire was agreed in October 2025, hundreds more Palestinians have been killed in fighting since. In all, 18,592 children and about 12,400 women had been killed by the end of 2025.
More civilians “were killed in Ukraine in 2025 than in the two previous years” – a recorded total of 2,514 – which War Watch notes was a 70% increase on the number killed in 2023. Russian drone attacks have deliberately targeted civilians, and millions of homes have lost electricity and other utilities.
Sexual and gender-based violence are documented in almost every conflict. In armed conflicts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, “an epidemic of such violence” has been perpetrated by almost all parties. Victims, the vast majority of whom are women and girls, range from year-old infants to 75-year-olds.
In Sudan, brutal sexual violence was documented after the fall of El Fasher to rebels in October 2025. “Survivors told of being gang-raped by RSF fighters,” the report notes, with the abuse lasting hours or days and sometimes taking place in the presence of family members.
The report’s authors argue that while under the Geneva conventions every country is bound “to respect and to ensure respect” for international humanitarian law “in all circumstances”, in practice there is a widening gap between treaty obligations and a reality that allows more war crimes to take place.
“Addressing widespread impunity for serious violations of international law should be treated as a policy priority,” the War Watch study observes. Its authors propose a series of safeguards to try to reduce the number of war crimes.
They include introducing and enforcing a ban on arms sales by all countries “where there is a clear risk that the arms or ammunition to be delivered will be used to commit or facilitate serious violations” of international humanitarian law.
A second proposal is to prohibit the use of unguided gravity bombs or inaccurate long-range artillery in populated areas, plus restricting drones and artificial intelligence targeting against civilians.
It also argues for “ensuring the systematic prosecution of war crimes” and calls for adequate political and financial support of the international criminal court (ICC) in The Hague, and national war crimes tribunals. Many major powers are not members of the ICC, including the US, Russia, China, Israel and India.
