| This new series of four
meetings organised by ODI’s Humanitarian
Policy Group aims to explore some of the most pressing issues
relating to civilian security and protection in situations of violent
conflict. Each meeting will focus on one of four dimensions of this
topic: the political and institutional policy environment; the operational
challenges to protection; the link between physical security and
livelihoods; and the use of advocacy in pursuit of protection goals.
The series will bring together current and proposed research from
the group, as well as a range of other organisational and academic
perspectives. It is hoped that this set of meetings will shed new
light on this agenda by drawing on the experience of practitioners,
policy-makers and academics who are actively engaged with this vital
topic.
If you would like to attend any of the meetings
in this series, please send an email stating your name, organisation,
contact details and the titles(s) and date(s) of the meetings you
wish to attend to: meetings@odi.org.uk
Meeting one
Political and humanitarian
approaches to civilian protection
Speakers:
James Darcy, Director of Programmes, Humanitarian
Policy Group, ODI
Nicholas Grono, Vice-President for Advocacy and
Operations, International Crisis Group
Chair: Prof Nicholas Wheeler, Department
of International Politics, University of Wales
Thursday 19 April, 1.00-2.30PM
ODI, 111 Westminster Bridge Road, London SE1 7JD
The formal adoption of the ‘responsibility to protect’
doctrine at the 2005 World Summit has led to a series of discussions
about the practical and strategic implications of that doctrine.
The language of protection has featured increasingly in political
discourse since the mid-1990s and the spectacular failures to protect
in Rwanda and Bosnia. It features in the resolutions of the UN Security
Council and the mandates of UN and regional peacekeeping forces,
at the same time as asylum policy has become increasingly restrictive.
Meanwhile, in the domain of humanitarian action, protection is increasingly
stated as a central objective of interventions that had previously
focused almost exclusively on relief assistance. Yet in both spheres,
the capacity (and the will) to protect appears to lag well behind
the rhetoric. This meeting will explore the evolution of these agendas
and ask whether their trajectories are convergent or divergent.
How do political ideas of protection relate to that embodied in
international humanitarian law? Where a state is failing in its
duty to protect, how can the international community intervene effectively
to protect civilians? Is international protection for civilians
an achievable goal or a false promise – and how does it sit
with dominant state security agendas?
Meeting two
Livelihoods,
conflict and civilian security
Speakers:
Cathy Huser, Protection Adviser, International Committee
of the Red Cross
Nicholas Crawford, Head of Emergencies and Transitions
Unit, World Food Programme
Susanne Jaspars, Independent Consultant
Chair: Sara Pantuliano, Research
Fellow, Humanitarian Policy Group, ODI
Thursday 26 April, 1.00-2.30PM
ODI, 111 Westminster Bridge Road, London SE1 7JD
There is a strong and well-documented interaction in situations
of violent conflict between threats to physical security and threats
to livelihoods and subsistence. Factors that affect one tend to
impact on the other, both at the household and community levels
and in more systemic ways, for example through the destruction of
critical resources and the disruption of markets. For this reason,
it is logical to consider issues of protection and of livelihood
support together when responses are being developed, but this has
tended not to be the case. Despite clear overlaps in the conceptual
frameworks and assessment methods used in each of these two approaches,
the humanitarian community have developed protection and livelihoods
interventions largely independently of each other. This meeting
will explore what kinds of livelihoods interventions can best promote
the security of vulnerable populations while ensuring their access
to basic subsistence.
Meeting three
Operational challenges
to protecting civilians:
Questions from civil and military experience
Speakers:
Sorcha O'Callaghan, Research Officer, Humanitarian Policy
Group, ODI
Brigadier General Jan-Gunner Isberg, Swedish Armed Forces;
Former Deputy Force Commander and Brigade Commander, MONUC
Asif R. Khan, Independent Consultant, Former Deputy Chief
of Staff, MONUC
Chair: Victoria Wheeler, Research
Fellow, Humanitarian Policy Group, ODI
Thursday 10 May, 1.00-2.30PM
ODI, 111 Westminster Bridge Road, London SE1 7JD
The operational challenges to civilian protection are the subject
of ongoing debate in civil and military circles. Concepts of military
roles in protection continue to evolve and the emphasis has shifted
from the idea of protection as restraint in the use of force to
protection that depends on the use of force. Lessons from the DRC,
Darfur and elsewhere suggest that military and humanitarian cooperation
is possible in this area but is fraught with ethical, operational
and security challenges. While some see military (or, often, police)
forces as the only means of deterring violence directed at civilians,
others see the use of force as exacerbating violence and the risk
of harm to civilians. International peacekeepers have struggled
to deliver on protection mandates due to difficulties in defining
effective roles and because of the severe limits on available resources.
Moreover, different national military doctrines, which dictate very
different approaches to protection and the use of force, have presented
a real challenge for multi-national peacekeeping forces.
Meanwhile, at the political level, member states continue to debate
what the proper role for peacekeeping forces in this field should
be. For humanitarian agencies, choices about when and where to engage
with protection strategies involving military or law enforcement
actors are complex and potentially dangerous, both for themselves
and the people they are aiming to help. Yet their own capacity to
protect civilians is necessarily limited. This meeting will seek
to unpack these issues and generate discussion about operational
realities in the field.
Meeting four
Civilian protection and
humanitarian advocacy:
Strategies and dilemmas
Speakers:
Marc DuBois, Head of Humanitarian Affairs, MSF-Holland
Edmund Cairns, Senior Policy Adviser (Research),
Oxfam GB
Prof Hazel Smith, Department of International Relations,
University of Warwick
Chair: Sorcha O'Callaghan, Research Officer,
Humanitarian Policy Group, ODI
Wednesday 23 May, 1.00-2.30PM
ODI, 111 Westminster Bridge Road, London SE1 7JD
Humanitarian actors increasingly construe their role not just as
relief providers, but as advocates for the victims of crises. Reflecting
in part a greater integration between political and humanitarian
agendas, this development exposes divergent views of humanitarianism
and involves complex choices for operational humanitarian actors.
The work of humanitarian actors in protection is frequently contingent
on their ability to influence military and political actors, both
local and international. However, advocacy – at least in its
more public and denunciatory forms – has potentially serious
negative implications for operational aid organisations, most notably
in relation to access and staff security.
Drawing on examples from field settings, this meeting will examine
advocacy undertaken by humanitarian organisations to promote civilian
welfare and security and its implication for other programming.
If you would like to attend any of the meetings in this series,
please send an email stating your name, organisation, contact details
and the date(s) and titles(s) of the meeting(s) you wish to attend
to: meetings@odi.org.uk
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