Displaying items by tag: Security

The protection of civilians has occupied a central position in the policy and operational responses of many actors in Darfur. There have been protracted and numerous debates at the highest political levels, including at the UN Security Council (see the article by Oliver Ulich, page 5), and humanitarian actors have been unusually ambitious in their efforts to enhance civilian protection. Protection officers have been deployed, both by mandated and non-mandated agencies, UN and NGO, and cooperation with human rights agencies and monitors, while not always harmonious, has been notably better than in past crises. Such cooperation has produced positive, though…

On 21 December 2004, Save the Children UK announced that it was suspending all of its operations in Darfur. Nine days earlier, two Save staff members, clearly identifiable as humanitarian workers, had been taken from their vehicle and shot dead as they made their way back to Nyala from the clinic they were supporting in South Darfur. This was the second fatal incident the agency had suffered in Darfur in two months. On 10 October, two other staff members had been killed when their vehicle struck an anti-tank mine in North Darfur, despite their having sought and received numerous assurances…

Commodities, rather than cash, remain the predominant form of emergency relief: relief agencies typically distribute food aid, seeds, tools and shelter materials; they rarely give people the cash with which to buy these things themselves. Supporters of cash responses in emergencies argue that they can be more cost-effective and timely than commodity distribution, give the recipients greater choice and dignity and benefit the economies into which they are injected. Sceptics argue that cash responses are often not practical, particularly in complex emergencies, where security risks and the risk of corruption are deemed unacceptable. Even where cash responses may be feasible,…

One Sunday evening in August 2003, a group of armed men held eight relief workers at gunpoint at their home in the Burundian capital, Bujumbura.  The assailants, armed with pistols and assault rifles, threatened to kill one of the expatriates, and demanded that the group hand over all its cash. No one was injured but, as the OCHA Situation Report describing the incident observed, ‘the psychological impact on those present, mainly volunteers, is of grave concern’. It is generally acknowledged that the availability of small arms affects the quality and quantity of humanitarian and development assistance, and an array of…

Over recent years the pages of the RRN has conveyed information and analysis on the emerging need for humanitarian assistance to be delivered to rigorous ethical as well as minimum technical standards. The need for ethical relief has become more apparent and more public with every major humanitarian crisis, reaching a peak in Goma in late 1994. It was the events in eastern Zaire, which turned the spotlight as perhaps never before on relief workers who, rather than being applauded for their humanitarian work, were accused of making things worse, of feeding the guilty, of not saving the innocent. For…

The People in Aid Code (see issue 6) has progressed significantly since its publication by the RRN in 1997. Now reprinted, it has been translated into French and Spanish, and a Rome-based group of agencies recently produced an Italian version. The Code was voted ‘most stimulating Network Paper’ by readers of the RRN in 1998. But the People in Aid Code is more than just a reference document. Back in 1997, 11 NGOs from the UK and Ireland made a commitment to test it in the field and a three-year trial started. The Code in practice Each pilot agency was…

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) was created within the UN Secretariat as a part of Kofi Annan’s reform programme in January 1998. It replaced the widely-criticised and short-lived Department of Humanitarian Affairs (DHA) which had in turn replaced an ailing coordinating disaster relief office (UNDRO). Under the new leadership of Sergio Vieira de Mello, OCHA is again trying to find the right profile. Focus has been reduced to three main themes: coordination of humanitarian response, policy development, and advocacy. Essentially, OCHA’s mandate is ‘to mobilise and coordinate the collective efforts of the international community, in particular…

Late last year the worsening humanitarian situation in the DRC together with increased security risks to humanitarian agencies made it necessary to seek consensus on a common approach to the delivery of humanitarian assistance, based on the application of agreed principles. This set of principles – the Principles of Engagement for Emergency Humanitarian Assistance in the Democratic Republic of Congo – aims at increasing the efficiency and pertinence of aid and maximising the humanitarian space for the relief community. They are based on the ICRC’s Code of Conduct and were first set out at a meeting in Nairobi on 23…

The origins of the current Code of Conduct for Sierra Leone date back to 1996 when agencies developed standards for child protection activities. This prompted dialogue on the need for a broader code for humanitarian agencies which was formalised at a workshop held in Conakry during the Junta period, and adopted by over 40 agencies. Notwithstanding current events, the need for a revised code came about following the restoration of the democratic government in February 1998. In particular, the Conakry code had incorporated a ‘no-guns policy’, the interpretation of which had caused some controversy. In addition, a number of agencies…

In recent years, concern for the security of aid personnel working in violent environments has grown rapidly. There are a number of reasons for this. First, there is a perception of greater insecurity with more personnel being injured or killed. Although trends cannot be accurately assessed (most agencies do not keep proper records), it is the perceived insecurity that prompts action. An important factor in this is the perception that aid workers are now more at risk of being deliberately targeted, either for political reasons or because they are easy prey for criminals, and this drastically alters the perception of…