Protection and Conflict

The Refugee Studies Centre, in collaboration with the Humanitarian Policy Group at the Overseas Development Institute, organised an international conference on Protecting People in Conflict & Crisis: Responding to the Challenges of a Changing World (22-24 September).

• Conference Programme (PDF file)

This conference was generously supported by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, UK Department of International Development and UNHCR.

Background to the Conference

The current concept of protection underpinning the protection work of international humanitarian actors was devised during a series of ICRC workshops in the 1990s:

“[protection is] all activities, aimed at obtaining full respect for the rights of the individual in accordance with the letter and the spirit of the relevant bodies of law (i.e. human rights, humanitarian and refugee law). Human rights and humanitarian actors shall conduct these activities impartially and not on the basis of race, national, national or ethnic origin, language or gender”

The protection of people affected by conflict and crisis now figures explicitly as one of the primary aims of the international humanitarian system, but it also remains one of its greatest challenges.

Recent years have seen increasing innovation in the way humanitarian protection is conceived, framed and implemented at the global level. Roles have expanded and evolved in parallel. Despite its higher profile, protection remains hotly debated as a policy issue.

International consensus around ‘Responsibility to Protect’ (R2P) and what it means in practice remains weak, and translating conceptual understandings into action has proved challenging. The expansion of roles has raised questions around responsibilities, mandates and capacities, and at the field level genuine dilemmas exist around the interplay between different protection priorities and efforts, between national and international actors, and around the effectiveness of different protection actors in improving the security of populations at risk.

For more information see Protection Civilians in Crisis: Responding to the Challenges of a Changing World , a background paper by Miriam Bradley on the themes and issues that were discussed during the conference.

Aims and themes of the conference

This conference sought to provide a space for dialogue and debate on the subject of protection and its place in international politics, policy, and practice today. The conference included representatives from diverse academic, policy and practitioner backgrounds and interests, including humanitarian, human rights, security, military, developmental and political.

The conference addressed the following indicative themes:

Populations at risk: Surviving and responding to protection threats

Debates over protection often focus upon the institutional, legal and organisational mechanisms of national and international actors. Often the voices of those they seek to protect are marginalised and the actions they take to protect themselves are neglected. The conference aims to improve understanding of the protection concerns and responses of those who are affected by crisis.

Concepts of protection

Despite the consensus achieved at the ICRC workshops in the 1990s, the notion of protection remains contested. ‘Protection’ has evolved to respond to changing contexts and agendas and is interpreted in a variety of ways, depending upon particular institutional mandates, organisational objectives and political priorities. The conference will examine the developing nature of ‘protection’ as concept, discourse and norm.

Politics of protection

While the protection of civilians is a humanitarian and human rights concern, it has major political ramifications, with implications for military tactics, international relations and political action. In particular, discourses surrounding the ‘responsibility to protect’ invoke protection as a concept that both justifies military interventionism, and defines the bounds and content of sovereignty.

Protection, security and the roles of military and armed actors

While many humanitarian actors are seeking to strengthen the protection sensitivity and impacts of assistance programmes and to implement protection-focused programmes, physical protection from direct threats is often provided by military or armed actors. Humanitarian agencies’ engagement and cooperation with armed or military actors may enhance immediate protection from direct threats or facilitate the delivery of assistance, but may incur trade-offs and compromises affecting the real or perceived neutrality, independence and effectiveness of humanitarian action.

National and regional responsibilities to protect

International Humanitarian Law and broader normative frameworks emphasise the primary responsibility of the state to protect citizens. Yet, state actors are often active belligerents pursuing military or other policies that threaten people’s lives and livelihoods or neglect their protection needs. The relationships between state actors and humanitarian organisations are often difficult and ambiguous. The ‘R2P ’ doctrine calls for international responses where national state protection fails, but international action remains highly variable and often ineffective.

Protection in practice

Protection programming has evolved rapidly over the past 15 years and the range and scope of protection actors have expanded dramatically. While in many instances this increased engagement has benefited populations at risk, the political and practical complexities of undertaking protection activities have also posed new operational challenges for humanitarian actors.

The conference featured a range of keynote lectures, plenary discussions and expert panel debates, paper sessions and practice updates.

Podcasts

• Opening address: Protection space
• Plenary 1: 'Population at risk'
• Plenary 2: 'Protection, rights and forced migration' & 'Responsibility to protect' (available soon)
• Plenary 3: 'Security and protection', Closing address & Closing remarks (available soon)

Opening address

Erika Feller, Protection Space
UNHCR Assistant High Commissioner for Protection

Keynote papers

Dennis McNamara, Politics of protection
Senior Humanitarian Adviser at the Humanitarian Dialogue Centre, Geneva; formerly Special Adviser on Internal Displacement to the UN’s Emergency Relief Co-ordinator and Director of the OCHA Inter-agency Internal Displacement Division.

Dr Zonke Majodina, Protection, rights and migration
Deputy Chairperson of the South Africa Human Rights Commission and Senior Lecturer at the Graduate School for the Humanities and Social Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand.

Jean-Francois Durieux, Concepts of protection
Deputy Director, Division of Operational Services, UNHCR

Zachary Lomo, Populations at Risk
Former Director of the Refugee Law Project, Makerere University, Uganda, and doctoral candicate in international law and refugees at Cambridge University

Naomi Kikoler, Responsibility to protect
Researcher, Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies, City University of New York

Professor David Keen, Security and protection
Professor of Complex Emergencies, London School of Economics

Endnote address

Marc Dubois
Executive Director, MSF-UK
The orginal text on which the endnote was based