Law enforcement officials play a key role in society, serving and protecting the people and upholding the law. That role is valid at all times, including during armed conflicts and other situations of violence. By engaging in dialogue with police and security forces about the law and their operations, the ICRC supports their efforts to incorporate the rules and standards of international law into their procedures. For the past 20 years, the manual "To Serve and to Protect" has provided guidance for that dialogue. This updated version takes that successful endeavour a step further, using recent experience to explain the international rules and standards applicable to the law enforcement function and their practical implications for law enforcement work.

The purpose of this guidance note is to provide Humanitarian Coordinators (HCs) with a specific, clear and field-oriented tool to facilitate the integration of human rights into humanitarian action, and to outline the role of the HC in this context. It is hoped that the guidance note will also facilitate and encourage agencies to clarify their role vis-à-vis the integration of the human rights agenda into their activities. The guidance note begins by setting human rights law in context and discusses its relevance to humanitarian action. Subsequent sections provide assistance to HCs for the gathering and assessment of human rights related information and for the application of this information – with particular attention paid to the application of human rights for assistance, protection response and advocacy activities as well as for possible human rights related reporting which might be undertaken. The guidance note concludes with suggestions regarding the forms of human rights partnership and coordination systems which HCs might consider establishing.

Both conflicts and natural disasters produce life-threatening situations for citizens and migrants. While violence is at the core of the threat in conflicts, natural hazards represent the threat in natural disasters. During conflict, citizens and non-citizens alike may be the targets of armed attacks and sexual and gender-based violence, and both groups risk forced recruitment into armed forces. In some cases, migrants may be the specific target of violence, as occurred in Libya in 2011. In natural disasters, both populations may be harmed if there is widespread destruction of habitat and livelihoods. Migrants may be more likely to live in neighbourhoods with poor housing and infrastructure, leaving them particularly vulnerable to the impacts of natural disasters. In both cases, individuals, families, and affected communities have limited capacity to overcome the threats without the help of national governments, civil society, and private sector actors and, where added capacity is needed, the international community. This issue brief examines the differential impacts of conflicts and natural disasters on migrants. It goes on to discuss existing legal and policy frameworks that guide actions on conflicts and natural disasters and explores practical constraints in responding to the needs of migrants in each type of situation. These include failures in governance at the national and local levels, particularly during conflict, which make protection of noncitizens by host countries difficult; weaknesses in early warning and emergency preparedness systems; difficulties in mounting large-scale evacuations when non-citizens are unable to remain in the affected countries; barriers to effective collaboration between the military and humanitarian actors, particularly in conflict situations; and challenges to reintegrate migrants who must return to their home countries because of conflicts or natural disasters.

Prepared by members of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC), this Handbook aims to provide actors in the field with guidance on gender analysis, planning and actions to ensure that the needs, contributions and capacities of women, girls, boys and men are considered in all aspects of humanitarian response. It also offers checklists to assist in monitoring gender equality programming. The guidelines focus on major cross-cutting issues and areas of work in the early response phase of emergencies. The Handbook is also a useful tool to make sure gender issues are included in needs assessments, contingency planning and evaluations. It can be used as a tool to mainstreaming gender as a cross-cutting issue in the sectors/clusters. If used correctly, this Handbook will help promote the ultimate goal of protecting and promoting the human rights of women, girls, boys and men in humanitarian action and advancing the goal of gender equality

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.

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

Violent conflict greatly increases the vulnerability of civilian populations to human trafficking and slavery. Refugees and other migrants displaced by conflict are particularly vulnerable to this extreme form of exploitation. As the international community struggles to respond to increasing levels of conflict and the consequent, unprecedented, scale of human flight, it is imperative that the United Nations, Member States and all stakeholders work together to ensure that the world’s most vulnerable are protected from trafficking in and beyond conflict. While the anti-slavery movement has begun to make significant progress in recent years, the response is yet nowhere near equal to the challenge. But the focus of UN and world leaders on modern slavery does provide a foundation to build upon. In July 2016, UK Prime Minister Theresa May said eliminating modern slavery is “the great human rights issue of our time.”Leaders from U.S. President Barack Obama to Pope Francis have stressed the moral imperative to combat human trafficking and end slavery. And in December 2015, the United Nations held its first thematic debate on human trafficking, with a call for the UN SecretaryGeneral to address and prevent trafficking in conflict. The inclusion of modern slavery and human trafficking at the highest levels of the international agenda is a welcome development, as is the surge of activity among UN agencies and Member States to tackle these crimes. However, despite growing awareness of modern slavery, the UN’s response has been fragmented and uncoordinated. There is a real danger that the anti-slavery momentum built over the past year will be squandered without high level UN-leadership, much greater Member State engagement, and focussed interagency cooperation. This report assesses the UN’s role in addressing trafficking in conflict and provides recommendations for strengthening its efforts.

The present report, prepared following consultations and covering the period from January to December 2019, is submitted pursuant to Security Council resolution 2427 (2018) and presents trends regarding the impact of armed conflict on children and information on violations committed. Where possible, violations are attributed to parties to conflict and the annexes to the present report include a list of parties engaging in violations against children, namely the recruitment and use of children, the killing and maiming of children, rape and other forms of sexual violence against children, attacks on schools, hospitals and protected personnel, and the abduction of children

Adopting a feminist perspective, this paper analyses the doctrine of humanitarian intervention and its impact on women in recipient states, particularly with regard to sexual violence. By analysing the phenomenon of post-conflict trafficking in Kosovo following the NATO intervention, the author presents a challenge to the ‘feminist hawks’ who have called for military intervention in situations of systematic sexual violence. It is the author’s contention that such intervention would be counterproductive for women’s rights and thus constitute a disproportionate response to sexual violence in terms of the international law governing the use of force.