The dangers of promising to protect – Who is best-placed to protect a wounded childs physical security or human rights?
DAKAR, 24 May 2010 (IRIN): The UN Refugee agency (UNHCR) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) have been protecting civilians for decades, but protection as a response by the humanitarian community is still relatively new, loosely-defined, and some experts warn of the danger of over-promising what cannot be delivered.
The top five humanitarian NGOs include protection as a core activity, a UNHCR-led protection cluster has been formed as part of the humanitarian reforms, and protection is included in most humanitarian appeals.
Problematically, the term means different things to different agencies: UNHCR and ICRC protection mandates are defined by international law; other humanitarian agencies tend to focus on protecting people from harm, abuse and exploitation, or take a wider approach of protecting all civilian rights, including shelter, water or education; some embrace both.
IRIN interviewed various humani-tarian protection specialists to discover the differences.
Marc DuBois, head of the global medi-cal charity, Méde-cins Sans Frontiè-res, in Britain, has written and deba-ted extensively on the dangers of humanitarians over-promising how much protec-tion they can deliver, perhaps masking the responsibility of the perpetrators of violence and abuse in crisis situations.
He recently expressed his views on the “fig leaves and other delusions of protection” in the Humanitarian Exchange magazine, published by the UK Overseas Development Institute.
Bo Viktor Nylund, UNICEF’s Senior Advisor on Child Protection in Emergencies, guided the organization’s approach in Haiti and Darfur, among other locales, and has written extensively on the subject.
Bill Forbes, Associate Director of Protection at World Vision International, a faith-based relief NGO, runs their programmes for street children, those affected by armed conflict, sexual exploitation and gender-based violence, and child trafficking.
Ruvendrini Menikdiwela, Deputy Director of International Protection Services at UNHCR, coordinates the global protection cluster of 40 agencies in the emergency protection response, which has been active in Côte d’Ivoire, Colombia, Ethiopia, Lebanon, Pakistan, the Horn of Africa and Haiti.
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