Featured Member: Tirana Hassan

“In situations of conflict and crisis, it can be very difficult to get eyes and ears on the ground in order to make sure that the victims get heard,” says Tirana Hassan who works in the Emergencies Division of Human Rights Watch (HRW). Deploying to different conflicts and crises around the world, the aim of her work is to credibly document violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in real time so that the information can reach decision-makers as the violations are still occurring and immediate action can be taken.

The sense of immediacy in her work and the fact that she is engaged in human rights work that can lead to direct prevention keeps her motivated. “Human rights work can not just be retrospective,” Tirana explains. “Demanding accountability of the violators is an important step for long-term justice and accountability, but it should not be the only tool for protecting human rights in crises,” she continues, stressing also that it is important to empower local professionals working in these areas to ensure sustainable results.

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It is important to keep in mind that protection is a process, and should not be a stagnant professional field.

- Tirana Hassan

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Tirana started her career as a social worker in Australia, where she worked on issues concerning asylum seekers and youth mental health and homelessness. She then moved into the humanitarian sector with Save the Children in eastern Indonesia and continued working in child protection in several emergency settings ranging from Darfur to Sri Lanka.

“It is important to keep in mind that protection is a process, and should not be a stagnant professional field,” says Tirana. Conflicts and crises are highly ambiguous, and it is necessary to approach the issues at hand in a multi-faceted manner and bring together all professionals working in humanitarian settings. To this end she thinks PHAP plays an important role in providing a networking platform as well as training in international humanitarian law: “Having this sort of theoretical knowledge is important for humanitarian professionals, in order for them to reflect upon their role and how it interacts with those of others and to find new and better ways to serve the populations we work with.”