Archive:
EISF teamed up with DisasterReady.org to host a webinar entitled ‘Communications Technology and Humanitarian Delivery: Challenges and Opportunities for Security Risk Management’. The webinar launches GISF’s new paper of the same title, and features engaging discussion on opportunities and challenges of communications…
Anis Chouchane has written a second blog for GISF, addressing the question of new technologies and data protection: are humanitarian organisations ready to face security threats of the 21st century?
The increasing use of electronic data by the aid industry and growing fears about data protection emphasise the lack of clear rules for data management. In the years ahead, more will need to be done to appease fears around data protection. However, if rules and adequate security measures are established, no one can deny that technology will enable aid organisations to reach an even larger number of people in need.
Under the counter-terrorism framework, problematic situations extend from Colombia to Yemen through any country where one of the parties to the armed conflict is listed as a terrorist organisation. Likewise, some activities that are at the core of humanitarian action cannot be undertaken without making contact with proscribed groups. What happens then, when two ideas collide?
Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) and International Rescue Committee (IRC) report on Syrian Civilians difficulty to find safe border crossings, they outline their recommendations for the international community, host countries and humanitarian agencies, NRC and IRC further analyse the context of Syrian…
Panel discussion at the SIDA Conference on Humanitarian Action. Discussion with Per Byman (Radiohjälpen), Per Lundberg (Sida), Lisa Reilly (European Interagency Security Forum) and Christopher Bodine (US Navy). September 25-26, 2014 – SIDA Partnership Forum, Härnösand (Sweden)
The killing of kidnapped British aid workers, David Haines and Alan Henning, by the Islamic state (IS) is another testimony of the security risks humanitarian personnel are increasingly facing. With the plummeting security situation in Iraq and Syria, humanitarian actors have increased their activity on social media to draw attention to their causes and to the plight of their beneficiaries. This activity, however, is putting them at an increased risk of kidnapping by militant groups.
In this GISF webcast, Naz Modirzadeh, (Senior Fellow, HLS-Brookings Project on Law and Security, Counterterrorism and Humanitarian Engagement project at Harvard Law School), addresses these questions. She also deals with further practical implications of counter-terrorism measures, with a particular focus on the impact for those involved in security risk management for NGOs.
The editors and contributors of this volume are to be congratulated on a practical text that pushes forwards our knowledge and understanding of the virtual space that now surrounds humanitarian operations, and which can have such a physical impact upon…
Research summary: A research project by Christopher Finucane, www.humanitarianpolicy.org,in cooperation with the Centre for Refugee and Disaster Response, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, and the Security Management Initiative (SMI) of the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP).…