Home › Member contributions ›

Latest articles

PHAP publishes articles by selected member contributors on current challenges related to humanitarian action. All opinions expressed are the authors' own.

If you are interested in contributing an article, please contact the PHAP Secretariat. We are happy to hear from you even if you are not currently a member of PHAP. You can read more about membership in PHAP online and apply today.


Climate change and displacement: Protecting whom, protecting how?
Dario Carminati
10 June 2013
Environmental issues have been part of the discourse on forcibly displaced people and migration for several decades. In the ‘90s, the international community was primarily concerned with the negative impact that refugees had on the environment of their host countries. It is only in the second...
State of play in Syria: Rising human costs and the danger of Assad’s ‘Samson Button’
Diane Paul
7 June 2013
The war in Syria rages on. The world watches in real time as the death toll in Syria is revised further and further upward. As a result of the brutality of the conflict and the targeting of civilians, the number of refugees and internally displaced have reached staggering numbers. Torture, rape,...
Setting a time limit: The case for a protocol on prolonged occupation
11 May 2013
Given that international law does not significantly distinguish between short-term and long-term occupation, what are the legal consequences for the right to self-determination of Peoples under prolonged occupation, and in particular the Palestinian People under Israeli rule? In a recent statement...
Checklists up for a reality check: Decades of debate on humanitarian standards
Katharine Derderian
8 May 2013
Over the past years, enormous changes have transformed IT, the media, medicine, travel, and communications, to name just a few areas. In some sense, humanitarian aid is no exception—our field is booming, with almost 17 billion in funds and an estimated workforce of 274 000 aid workers growing...
Environmentally displaced persons: How can they be protected by international law?
Laura Wilson
10 April 2013
The dramatic consequences of a warming planet have captured the attention of scientists, scholars, and politicians worldwide. Apart from the meteorological and geographical effects, changes to the Earth’s climate have the potential to compromise the realization of human rights for affected...