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Human Rights and Humanitarian Action Reference Group

In June 1998, the IASC Working Group established the Reference Group on Humanitarian Action and Human Rights, which subsequently became a Task Force "to strengthen the understanding and integration of human rights in humanitarian action by all humanitarian agencies".

Among the achievements of the Task Force are the development of the “IASC Guidelines on Human Rights for Humanitarian Coordinators”, “Frequently Asked Questions on International Humanitarian, Human Rights and Refugee Law” and “Growing the Sheltering Tree – Protecting Rights through Humanitarian Action”. 
The launch of the Humanitarian Reform process with its focus on the Cluster Approach – with the subsequent establishment of the Protection Cluster Working Group – catalysed a re-discussion of the role of this Task Force – and more importantly – of the place occupied by human rights within the IASC.

With the recent advancements in rolling out the Cluster Approach, the  Task Force, which had been suspended in 2007, was able to re-focus the priority issues that IASC partners believe they will need to work on in order to enhance integration of a human rights dimension into humanitarian action. Given the importance attached to ensuring a forum for a Human Rights discourse within the IASC architecture, partners suggested a return to the original identity of a Reference Group with a non-time- and task-limited framework. This proposal resulted from the shared interest of the member agencies to continue working on the mainstreaming of human rights as a crosscutting issue for all IASC cluster/sectors and subsidiary bodies and was endorsed by the IASC Working Group in March 2007. The Reference Group meets biannually and whenever necessary on an ad hoc basis.  UN agencies  as well as the ICRC and IFRC and NGOs are members. The commitment of the interested IASC agencies – each with its comparative advantage, institutional knowledge, experience and skills – to the activities envisaged ensures a solid participatory approach at the institutional level.

»The Reference Group aims to:

  1. Support the Humanitarian Reform process by facilitating integration of a Human Rights-Based Approach;
  2. Integrate a human rights perspective in IASC advocacy initiatives;
  3. Develop user friendly tools to facilitate the integration of a human rights-based-approach in humanitarian action; and
  4. Increase the level of awareness and information sharing about human rights initiatives with relevance to humanitarian action.

Activities foreseen in the Reference Group will be undertaken in coordination with initiatives of the IASC Protection Cluster Working Group, in the spirit of complementarity and acknowledging the subsidiary role of the Reference Group on Human Rights and Humanitarian Action when issues have already been taken up or are agreed to be taken up by the Protection Cluster Working Group.

Past meetings

Oct
14
2008

Reference Group on Human Rights and Humanitarian Action

Avenue Giuseppe Motta, 48
Geneva
room 6-09
(All day)
Apr
08
2008

Human Rights and Humanitarian Action Reference Group meeting

Avenue Giuseppe Motta, 48
Geneva
tbc
15:00 to 15:30
Feb
12
2008

Meeting of the Reference Group on Human Rights in Humanitarian Action

48, ave. Giuseppe Motta
Geneva
RI-01
(All day)
Jul
10
2007

IASC Reference Group on Human Rights and Humanitarian Action meeting

OHCHR
Geneva
(All day)
Jan
01
1970

IASC Human Rights and Humanitarian Action Reference Group meeting

Avenue Giuseppe Motta, 48
Geneva
Room RI-01
(All day)
Date Closed
31 March 2009

Chair

  • Ms. Kazumi Ogawa
    Human Rights Officer
    OHCHR
    City: Geneva
    Email
    kogawa [at] ohchr.org

Sections

  • Documents
  • Meetings

Recent documents

  • Draft Proposal for the Reference Group on Human Rights and Humanitarian Action
    Published Date
    13 October 2008
  • Draft Terms of Reference, IASC Human Rights and Humanitarian Action Reference Group
    Published Date
    10 June 2008
  • Minutes of the meeting, Human Rights and Humanitarian Action Reference Group meeting, 08 April 2008
    Published Date
    10 June 2008
  • Minutes of the Meeting, Meeting of the Reference Group on Human Rights in Humanitarian Action, 12 February 2008
    Published Date
    27 March 2008
  • Human Rights and Humanitarian Action - Priority Matrix for 2007
    Published Date
    5 October 2007
View all documents

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