The Professional Standards for Protection Work were first established in 2009 in a process initiated and led by the ICRC. Following a first revision in 2013, they are now being updated again to reflect new developments in situations of armed conflict and other situations of violence, and the experiences of humanitarian and human rights organizations responding to these crises.
The purpose of the standards, initiated and led by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and involving several humanitarian and human rights NGOs and UN agencies, is not to provide a ‘how-to’ guide for practitioners but, rather, to establish a living body professional standards informed by international law, professional ethics, good practice, and operational reality.
In 2015, the ICRC-led Advisory Group commenced a new process to update the Standards, in order to integrate the evolution of the environment in which we operate (stronger data protection norms, challenges and opportunities linked to the use of new technologies, evolution of the “counter-terrorism” narrative, etc.) and of our own reflection and practice (managing protection strategies, etc.). This revision will also seek to make some sections more accessible (Chapter 6 on managing sensitive information is completely restructured).
In order to familiarize participants with the reasoning behind the proposed revisions before providing their input, the event featured presentations by Guilhem Ravier from the ICRC, Jenny McAvoy from InterAction, and Kathrine Starup from the Danish Refugee Council on the overall revision process, as well as the main proposed changes to Chapter 2 ("Managing Protection Strategies"), Chapter 3 ("Outlining the Protection Architecture"), and Chapter 6 ("Managing Sensitive Protection Information").