Featured Member: Pedro Medrano

As a student in Chile during the years of military government, Pedro Medrano understood early on the importance of organizations engaged in human rights issues as well as humanitarian assistance and protection. “I felt that it was because of the international organizations that were dealing with human rights issues that my family was protected,” he says. As a result, he wanted to contribute to such efforts, and it has thereafter been the main focus of both his life and his work to, as he puts it, “be the voice of the voiceless, to work for the right to bring relief and give hope to the starving.”

Pedro is now the director of the New York office of the World Food Programme (WFP), responsible for ensuring that WFP’s perspective is reflected in United Nations forums, and that input from these forums also makes its way into WFP policy. His daily work includes discussing collaboration and coordination through the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC), engaging with government representatives, as well as liaising with organizations with which there is a close collaboration on a country level, such as the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women).

His humanitarian career started in Central America in the mid-‘80s, when civil wars were still ongoing in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua. Working with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and WFP, he was carrying out assessment missions to evaluate the needs of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the region. Although this was a formative period for him in general, one lesson from this time stands out: that we need to deal with the underlying structural issues in order not to have to deal with the much more expensive consequences. “It took a civil war and thousands of deaths for the international community to realize that these issues affect everyone,” he laments.

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It is a fact that violations of IHL and human rights are in many cases the prelude to larger-scale violence and instability, and pose a major threat to international peace and security.

- Pedro Medrano

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Violations of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and human rights should not just be a moral concern for everyone, but also a practical one. “It is a fact that violations of IHL and human rights are in many cases the prelude to larger-scale violence and instability, and pose a major threat to international peace and security,” Pedro says. “In addition,” he continues, “if someone feels that violations will go unnoticed, that there is impunity and the violators will not be held accountable - that is the best incentive to propagate violence and instability.” He thinks that more resources are urgently needed for a set of closely interrelated areas: promoting human rights and equal opportunities, meeting basic needs, as well as fostering development.

An important step along the way is to ensure that common standards are put in place and gain recognition from the humanitarian field, according to Pedro. Although there are different certified professionals that provide the skills necessary for humanitarian assistance, such as doctors, engineers, and architects, he thinks that there should be specific accreditation for the skills that are particular to the humanitarian field, such as negotiation and advocacy, as well as knowledge of the basic principles laid down in IHL that should be understood and embraced by all humanitarian workers. Here he thinks PHAP can play an important coordinating role, providing a mechanism for sharing opinions and best practices among humanitarian professionals.

Regardless of the challenges he sees in the humanitarian field, he has faith that the situation will improve, saying that “humanitarians are extremely committed – I like that about us.”

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Interview conducted by Lena Zimmer      Text edited by Markus Forsberg