Jean-Philippe Lavoyer was born in 1950 in Berne (Switzerland), where he obtained his degree as a barrister in 1976. From 1984 to 1988, he was an ICRC delegate in South Africa, Somalia and Afghanistan. After three years with the ICRC's Legal Division in Geneva, he was assigned to Kuwait (1991–1994). He has now rejoined the Legal Division, and continues to carry out regular missions, particularly for the purpose of disseminating international humanitarian law