Drowned in definitions?
Some say that those displaced as a result of environmental or climate change are refugees and advocate for the expansion of the definition of a refugee in the 1951 Refugee…
Humanitarian preparedness and response
It is now clear that humanitarian preparedness and response to extreme weather events and other changes are a small but extremely important emerging component of the climate change adaptation debate.…
No regrets
Prevention and mitigation must be priorities for action but, with global warming already a reality, there are some impacts for which adaptation is the only available and appropriate response. The…
From the Editors
It is often people’s immediate community that provides the first, last and perhaps best tactical response for many people affected by or under threat of displacement. However one defines protection…
Training to strengthen protection of IDP rights
The tenth anniversary of the Principles offers an opportunity to review training progress. The Humanitarian Response Review (HRR) which led to the implementation of the cluster approach in December 2005[1]…
The future of the Guiding Principles
In Burma, they have been used to raise awareness about displacement and mobilise humanitarian assistance but have offered little diplomatic or political leverage to influence the national authorities. During elections…
Understanding and supporting community-led protection
In recent years, there has been growing evidence of the effectiveness of locally led protection strategies and actions… A local women’s association in Sudan advises communities on how to seek…
Challenging the established order: the need to ‘localise’ protection
In 1977 Pierre Bourdieu wrote that “every established order tends to make its own entirely arbitrary system seem entirely natural”.[1] In the case of humanitarian protection, that established order has…
“This group is essential to our survival”: urban refugees and community-based protection
The ‘communities’ at the heart of community-based protection are not predetermined. Communities can cohere around any number of shared characteristics, and be more or less inclusive or exclusive depending upon…
Community-based protection: the ICRC approach
Communities and individuals affected by armed conflict and violence do not wait for humanitarian actors to analyse and address the problems and threats they face. They permanently monitor their surroundings…