In June 2017, the Child Protection Area of Responsibility (CP AoR), Global Education Cluster, and IOM’s Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) launched a joint-project to better integrate child protection in the collection, analysis and sharing of DTM data, with the objective of better understanding the needs and risks faced by children on the move to improve effectiveness of response. The DTM for Children on the Move project has produced multiple guidelines and tools, including this guidance document, to facilitate collaboration between the CP AoR and DTM in obtaining and using data that child protection partners need. The audience for this document is child protection cluster coordinators and information managers. Additional relevant tools to working with DTM may be found on the CP AoR webpage

In a statement issued in December 2013, the Principals of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) affirmed that all humanitarian actors have a responsibility to place protection at the center of humanitarian action. As part of preparedness efforts, immediate and life-saving activities, and throughout the duration of a crisis and beyond, it is thus incumbent on Humanitarian Coordinators, Humanitarian Country Teams and clusters to ensure that “protection of all persons affected and at-risk [informs] humanitarian decision-making and response, including engagement with States and non-State parties to conflict.” The IASC has committed to a systemwide and comprehensive response to conflict and disasters. This response is driven by the needs and perspectives of affected persons, with protection at its core. This policy defines the centrality of protection in humanitarian action, as per the December 2013 statement of the IASC Principals, as well as the process for its implementation at country level. In doing so, it seeks to reinforce complementary roles, mandates and expertise of all relevant actors. Specifically, this policy emphasizes an IASC commitment to prioritize protection and contribute to collective protection outcomes, including through the development of an HCT protection strategy to address the most critical and urgent risks and violations. It also underlines the need to implement this commitment in all aspects of humanitarian action and across the Humanitarian Programme Cycle (HPC). As such, the collective IASC roles and responsibilities in placing protection at the center of humanitarian action are explained, with due consideration for mandates and expertise and in line with humanitarian principles.

The strategy outlines the CP AoR’s strategic direction and role, specifying four key goals that focus on delivering the core cluster functions9 (for which the CP AoR is accountable) and delivering the transformation articulated through the World Humanitarian Summit. Each goal is positioned to integrate with and complement the work of key actors within the wider child protection community; to support the overall strategic direction of the Global Protection Cluster; and to articulate linkages and partnerships with other Clusters and Areas of Responsibility. These goals are underpinned by four guiding principles that support more inclusive, localized coordination whilst ensuring that core humanitarian values are not compromised.

Professional Standards for Protection Work (third edition) constitutes a set of minimum but essential standards aimed at ensuring that protection work carried out by human rights and humanitarian actors in armed conflict and other situations of violence is safe and effective. The standards reflect shared thinking and common agreement among humanitarian and human rights practitioners (UN, NGOs, and components of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement). The standards were adopted following an ICRC-led consultation process. This third edition takes into account the changes that have occurred in the environment in which protection actors operate and now reflects the distinctive characteristics of human rights and humanitarian actors engaged in protection work. Given the rapid developments in information communication technology and concurrent growth in data-protection law, comprehensive guidelines on protection information management have also been incorporated. There is now a stronger emphasis on measuring the outcome of protection activities in terms of the extent to which identified risks have been reduced, and on monitoring and evaluation. There are more detailed orientations on the need to uphold a principled approach to protection work when interacting with UN peace operations and other multinational forces. This edition also seeks to clarify how counter-terrorism legislation may affect the activities of protection actors

The Core Humanitarian Standard on Quality and Accountability (CHS) sets out Nine Commitments that organisations and individuals involved in humanitarian response can use to improve the quality and effectiveness of the assistance they provide. It also facilitates greater accountability to communities and people affected by crisis: knowing what humanitarian organisations have committed to will enable them to hold those organisations to account. The CHS places communities and people affected by crisis at the centre of humanitarian action and promotes respect for their fundamental human rights. It is underpinned by the right to life with dignity, and the right to protection and security as set forth in international law, including within the International Bill of Human Rights. As a core standard, the CHS describes the essential elements of principled, accountable and high-quality humanitarian action. Humanitarian organisations may use it as a voluntary code with which to align their own internal procedures. It can also be used as a basis for verification of performance, for which a specific framework and associated indicators have been developed to ensure relevance to different contexts and types of organisation.

Gender-based violence is among the greatest protection challenges individuals, families and communities face during humanitarian emergencies. Accounts of horrific sexual violence in conflict situations-especially against women and girls- have captured public attention in recent years. These violations and less recognized forms of gender based violence -intimate partner violence, child marriage and female genital mutilation- are also being committed with distubing frequency. Natural disasters and other emergencies exacerbate the violence and diminish means of protection. And gender-based violence not only violates and traumatizes its survivors, it also undermines the resilience of their societies, making it harder to recover and rebuild. Despite the scope and severity of the problem, current programming to prevent gender-based violence and provide support for survivors is insufficient to deliver the desired results. The newly-revised Interagency Standing Committee (IASC) Guidelines for Integrating Gender-Based Violence Interventions in Humanitarian Action: Reducing Risk, Promoting Resilience and Aiding Recovery are designed to address this gap, with clear steps the humanitarian community can take to protect people from gender-based violence. These Guidelines provide practical guidance and effective tools for humanitarians and communities to coordinate, plan, implement, monitor and evaluate essential actions for the prevention and mitigation of gender-based violence, throughout all stages of humanitarian response- from preparedness to recovery.

The inter-agency training package “Caring for Survivors” was developed in an effort to provide multi-sectoral actors with the necessary survivor-centered skills and tools to improve referral systems and care and support to survivors of GBV in their communities.

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region continues to host groups highly vulnerable to trafficking and exploitation. Migrant workers, particularly domestic workers, are known to be among those who are most at risk. While the region is confronted by many pressing challenges – the rise of Islamic extremism, sectarian conflict and unrelenting hardships – the massive numbers of displaced people and refugees on the move throughout MENA contribute to the extended profile of those vulnerable to trafficking and exploitation. All of these conditions together, coupled with already exceedingly precarious working conditions for millions of migrant workers described in this report, create the conditions that are described as the “perfect storm” for human trafficking. This combination of factors is precisely the reason why it is so necessary to address human trafficking and migrant protection now.

While some of the forms of exploitation covered by this research are specific to countries directly involved in conflict child soldiering and organ trafficking to treat wounded fighters the remaining types of trafficking in human beings have many points in common in conflict and post conflict periods. Recruitment methods, psychological control techniques and the forms of exploitation do not depend on particular geographic zones.