From 28 November to 1 December 2011, the 31st International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent took place in Geneva. Every four years, the Conference brings together the components of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement as well as the States party to the Geneva Conventions. It aims to address some of the most important questions regarding the development of humanitarian law and humanitarian action. In the following section Philip Spoerri, Director for International Law and Cooperation at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), introduces the resolutions adopted at the 31st Conference and reflects on its outcome from the ICRC's perspective. This section also includes the full texts of the resolutions adopted. Philip Spoerri began his career with the ICRC in 1994. Following a first assignment in Israel and the occupied and autonomous territories, he went on to be based in Kuwait, Yemen, Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In Geneva, he headed the Legal Advisers to Operations Unit. He returned to Afghanistan as head of the ICRC delegation there from 2004 to 2006, when he took up his current position. Before joining the ICRC, Philip Spoerri worked as a lawyer in a private firm in Munich. He holds a PhD in law from Bielefeld University and has also studied at the universities of Göttingen, Geneva and Munich.