About the Protecting Rights through Humanitarian Action Section

The goal of the Protecting Rights through Humanitarian Action section of the website is to serve as an on-line resource for all concerned with humanitarian action. The pages share information about training programmes, modules and manuals, practice guidelines, and other materials related to the interface between human rights and humanitarian action in an effort to help organizations avoid "reinventing the wheel" and to encourage creative new solutions.

The webpages were created on the recommendation of humanitarian and human rights professionals attending the Workshop on the Development of Human Rights Training for Humanitarian Actors: A Partnership Project. The workshop was held in Geneva in November 2001 and was sponsored by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the International Council of Voluntary Agencies (ICVA), both members of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Working Group's Reference Group on Humanitarian Action and Human Rights.

The Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) was created by UN General Assembly Resolution 46/182 (December 1991) to strengthen inter-agency cooperation in emergencies. The IASC brings together 17 agencies, including UN agencies (OCHA, UNDP, UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, WHO, FAO, OHCHR, and UNFPA) and, as standing invitees, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the World Bank, the Representative of the Secretary General on Internally Displaced Persons, and three major NGO coalitions: ICVA, InterAction (American Council for Voluntary Action), and the Steering Committee for Humanitarian Response (SCHR). IASC Website: www.humanitarianinfo.org/iasc/.

The Inter-Agency Standing Committee has emphasised the link between human rights and humanitarian action. In 1998, the IASC Reference Group on Humanitarian Action and Human Rights was created to ensure that the guidance of the UN Secretary-General relating to the mainstreaming of human rights into UN activities is carried out, as well as to promote understanding of how human rights can be put into practice. Members of the Reference Group include several major UN agencies (UNICEF, OHCHR, UNHCR, OCHA, WFP, and WHO as well as two IASC Standing Invitees, ICRC and ICVA. The Reference Group on Humanitarian Action and Human Rights has engaged in several major projects to date, including producing Growing the Sheltering Tree, a collection of field practices that promote and protect rights that will have worldwide distribution; sponsorship of a major workshop on human rights training for humanitarian actors; and the compilation of a document entitled Frequently Asked Questions on International Humanitarian, Human Rights and Refugee Law (forthcoming).

Documents posted on the pages under Protecting Rights through Humanitarian Action do not imply endorsement by any member organisations/agencies/offices or standing invitees of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee.