A major challenge for agencies operating in many conflict and post-conflict environments is the lack of regular access to displaced communities and project sites due to insecurity. In environments where the level of risk limits the ability to monitor, the options for humanitarian actors are normally either to reduce operations or accept the consequences of minimal oversight.
Under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, access to information and freedom of expression are recognised human rights. Yet, in times of disaster, affected populations and displaced people in particular often have no formal avenues to seek or obtain information, to share their knowledge or to raise their concerns or complaints.
In 2010, the Women’s Refugee Commission (WRC) undertook research to learn why implementation of maternal health interventions in humanitarian settings remained below standard; to map the personalities, values and attitudes of maternal health workers and the specific challenges they face in providing maternal services in crises; and to develop strategies to facilitate behavioural change among practitioners in order to better provide high-quality maternal health services.
Some 44% of UNHCR staff work in the field, often in remote, ‘hardship’ duty stations. They may be separated from their families and friends for months at a time, sometimes at very short notice, and have limited or occasionally no…
Practitioners and policymakers have a wealth of research on forced migration at their disposal online: literature reviews, case studies, conference proceedings, working papers, government documents, policy briefs, unpublished reports, and much more. What they will not find in abundance – at least, not for free – are the final products of research, that is, articles published in scholarly journals. Price and permission barriers have effectively rendered research findings inaccessible to many of those who need them most.
In many instances, armed non-state actors (ANSAs) play a significant role generating forced displacement around the world; they are also responsible for many abuses of human rights. On the whole, however, ANSAs have not been considered as being central to finding solutions for these problems. As non-state entities, they cannot participate in the creation of the international legal norms regulating these issues, nor can they become parties to international treaties – yet efforts to improve the protection of civilians during armed conflict cannot afford to ignore ANSAs.