ICRoV’s guiding motivation is the comparative and interdisciplinary investigation of phenomena of violence. Examination and analysis of these phenomena of violence are embedded into the overarching concepts of ‘Human Security’ and ‘Human Rights’.
We understand ‘Human Security’ as protection of the individual human being against physical threat (war, terror, etc.) and psychological or mental threat (repression, discrimination, etc.). We consider the implementation of human security as a prerequisite for human development. Human security shall be guaranteed through the rule of law (‘préemination du droit’, ‘Rechtsstaatlichkeit’), which is based on universal human rights on the one hand, and has to protect and secure these universal human rights on the other. 
The International Consortium for Research on Violence aims at elaborating prospects for ways out of violence as well as for ways leading towards the rule of law – in order to promote non-violence and legal certainty. Human rights, transitional justice, social reconciliation and economic reconstruction represent basic pillars of such rule of law.