The four principles of humanity, impartiality, neutrality, and independence are the foundations of humanitarian action. Guided by these principles, humanitarian organizations work to ensure that assistance and protection go to those most in need. As well as forming the basis of their work, the principles enable humanitarian organizations to gain and maintain acceptance from communities and parties to conflicts, helping ensure the safety of staff.
However, as counterterrorism measures become increasingly common at international and national levels, humanitarian organizations remain concerned about the impact of these on their ability to maintain a principled approach. While humanitarian organizations are, usually, not the target of these measures, they nevertheless pose real risks to operations, staff, and beneficiaries.
On 5 June 2020, we launched NRC's new Toolkit for Principled Humanitarian Action: Managing Counterterrorism Risks. This event provided an opportunity for representatives of several key stakeholders to take stock of this issue, five years on from the launch of the original Toolkit. It allowed for an exchange on the current state of the impact of counterterrorism measures on humanitarian organizations and the associated risks. What measures are humanitarian organisations taking to address these risks? What role can donors play in risk management? What are the emerging challenges and opportunities?
The Toolkit
The Toolkit for Principled Humanitarian Action: Managing Counterterrorism Risks updates the information contained in the 2015 Risk Management Toolkit in Relation to Counterterrorism Measures to reflect recent developments in this area. It aims to raise awareness of counterterrorism-related risks so that organizations can identify and mitigate these, and to make risk management approaches accessible to a broad range of staff who can use these in their day to day work.
Access the Toolkit here.