Although the promotion of international humanitarian law (IHL) in academic circles is a relatively new activity for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), it has made rapid progress since the mid 1990s. Today, the organisation is following up on university-related activities in some 130 countries around the world. Overseen and harmonised by the ICRC headquarters in Geneva but implemented primarily by operational and regional delegations in the field, the ICRC's programmes targeting university professors and students are notable for their variety and diversity. Nevertheless, the organisation has made a concerted effort to ensure that all such programmes further the same broad objective and operate according to the same principles of action. In the second section of this paper, we examine the issues related to including IHL courses in the regular curricula of the universities and faculties concerned and present the modus operandi adopted by the ICRC on the basis of ‘lessons learned’. In the third section, we highlight the ICRC's experience of promoting IHL in academic circles in the Russian Federation. Section 4 draws some conclusions.