ICRC operational security: Staff safety in armed conflict and internal violence

International Review of the Red Cross

Volumn 91, Issue 874, 2009, Pages 431-445

  Brugger, Patrick ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84874942890     PISSN: 18163831     EISSN: 16075889     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S1816383109990075     Document Type: Article

References (9)

1. A joint report from the Overseas Development Institute, UK, and the Center on International Cooperation at New York University, USA, collates data on violence against aid workers and analyses how perceptions of increased risk have shaped new security measures and programming approaches. Since 1997 the number of major acts of violence (killings, kidnappings and armed attacks resulting in serious injury) committed against aid workers has more than quadrupled. Overall, there were 792 reported acts of major violence against aid workers from 1997 to 2008, involving 1618 victims and resulting in 711 fatalities. Violence is most prevalent in Sudan (Darfur), Afghanistan and Somalia, which together accounted for more than 60% of incidents. Most aid worker victims are deliberately targeted for political and/or economic purposes, rather than being randomly exposed to violence. See Abby Stoddard, Adele Harmer and Victoria DiDomenico, ‘Providing Aid in Insecure Environments: 2009 Update’, Humanitarian Policy Group, Policy Brief No. 34, April 2009, available at http://www.cic.nyu.edu/Lead%20Page%20PDF/HPG_2009%20.pdf (visited 20 April 2009).
2. See Pierre Krähenbühl, ‘The ICRC's approach to contemporary security challenges: A future for independent and neutral humanitarian action’, International Review of the Red Cross, Vol. 86, No. 855, September 2004, pp. 505–514.
3. See Toni Pfanner, ‘Asymmetrical warfare from the perspective of humanitarian law and humanitarian action’, International Review of the Red Cross, Vol. 87, No. 857, March 2005, pp. 149–174.
4. E.g. on UNHCR, Algiers, December 2007 (the attack led to formation of an Independent Panel on Safety and Security, under Lakhdar Brahimi - see The Independent Panel on Safety and Security of UN Personnel and Premises Worldwide, Towards a Culture of Security and Accountability: Report of the Independent Panel on Safety and Security of UN Personnel and Premises Worldwide, 9 June 2008, available at http://www.humansecuritygateway.info/documents/UN_panelonsafety_9Jun08.pdf (visited 21 April 2009)
5. Agreement on the Organization of the International Activities of the Components of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement (hereinafter Seville Agreement), Seville, 26 November 1997, Art. 6.1.2(A)(c) provides that in situations where the ICRC is acting as lead agency, it has the specific responsibility ‘to define and ensure the application of any measure which may prove necessary to guarantee, to the greatest extent possible, the physical safety of personnel engaged in relief operations in the field’.
6. See also by Philippe Dind, ‘Security in ICRC field operations’, International Review of the Red Cross, Vol. 323, 1998, pp. 335–345.
7. On the use of the emblem, see Habib Slim, ‘Protection of the red cross and red crescent emblems and the repression of misuse’, International Review of the Red Cross, No. 272, 1989, pp. 420–437.
8. Seville Agreement, above note 11, Art. 6.1.2(A)(c).
9. See ‘Report on the use of armed protection for humanitarian assistance’, extract from a working paper submitted jointly by the ICRC and the International Federation, Council of Delegates, Geneva, 1–2 December 1995, available at http://www.icrc.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/htmlall/57jneg?opendocument (visited on 25 March 2009).