HPCR Podcasts

In this practitioner profile, ATHA sat down with Sinead to discuss her work in Sierra Leone and Liberia and her research on key lessons learned in the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Dr. Sinead Walsh is a Senior Fellow at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI) and a Visiting Scientist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

In this Practitioner Profile, we discuss challenges facing women in the Arab world, as well as responses to gender-based violence, support for survivors of violence, and other aspects of gender-sensitive programming in humanitarian emergencies. Dr. Lina Abirafeh is the Director of the Institute for Women's Studies in the Arab World (IWSAW).

In this Practitioner Profile, we discuss the use of private military and security companies (PMSCs) in the humanitarian sector. With growing threats against humanitarian actors and operations, and growing pressures for humanitarian programming in highly insecure settings, we speak about the role of PMSCs in the market for humanitarian security, and the implications for principled humanitarian action in the field. Dr. Birthe Anders is a Senior Fellow at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI) and a Visiting Scientist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

After over five years of war in Syria, civilians have not only been frequently caught in the crossfire, but have been intentionally targeted. In the view of the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria, amongst others, many of these acts amount to genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Considering these ongoing atrocities, this episode of the podcast will examine the prospects for accountability for war crimes and other serious violations of international law in Syria, including the particular case of the Yazidis. Speakers: Sareta Ashraph, Chief Legal Analyst, UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria; Murad Ismael, Executive Director, Yazda Organization; Yousuf Syed Khan, Legal Analyst, UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria; Naomi Kikoler, Deputy Director, Center for the Prevention of Genocide, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum; Ambassador Stephen Rapp, U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes, 2009-2015.

Since the peak in refugee and migrant arrivals on the Greek islands last year, subsequent border closures and the EU-Turkey deal have led many migrants to become stranded in Greece. In this Practitioner Profile, we examine how the humanitarian response there has evolved as a consequence, and what challenges remain in the transition to more protracted displacement. Pooya Rezai has been working on refugee assistance, and search and rescue operations with the Emergency Response Centre International (ERCI) in Lesvos, Greece.

What role do humanitarian law and norms play in humanitarian negotiations? Practitioners have a diverse array of views: some field workers perceive that the law holds a high level of practical utility in their negotiations, while others have found it to be irrelevant to their work. Through discussions with humanitarian practitioners about their experiences in the field, this podcast will explore the role that laws and norms play in humanitarian negotiations. Speakers: Yahya Khalil, Deputy Head of Regional Delegation of the ICRC to the GCC; Jean-Christophe Sandoz, Deputy Director for Law and Policy at the ICRC; Hichem Khadhraoui, Head of Operations with Geneva Call.

In this Practitioner Profile, we discuss the use of international humanitarian law as a framework for humanitarian negotiation, the pressures that current anti-terrorism laws place on humanitarians, and best practices for maintaining credibility in complex negotiations. Since 2011, Michiel Hofman has worked as a senior humanitarian specialist for MSF in Belfast, concentrating on research, training and operational support as well as publications in the humanitarian field.

In many of today’s frontline humanitarian environments, access is increasingly difficult to obtain and maintain, and continued engagement with non-state armed actors is an integral aspect of ensuring assistance and protection activities and advocating for compliance with international legal standards. Humanitarian professionals working in these spaces must navigate myriad challenges and dilemmas in order to negotiate an operational space for engagement with armed groups.

Part II. On August 24, 2016 the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, commonly referred to as the FARC, signed a peace deal after 52 years of internal conflict. This peace deal marks a potential end to the over half century of violence that has killed over 220,000 Colombians and displaced more than six million.

Through discussions with experts and humanitarian practitioners, this podcast will explore the impact of gender and other aspects of diversity on frontline humanitarian negotiations.

The Colombian government and Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) recently signed peace accords bringing an end to 52 years of violent conflict. For his efforts to negotiate and conclude the peace deal, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos was awarded this year’s Nobel Peace Prize on October 7. Yet on October 2, Colombian voters rejected the deal by a narrow margin in a national referendum, putting the peace process back in limbo. In this practitioner profile, ATHA discusses the latest developments in the Colombian peace process, and what a gender perspective can teach us about violence, transitional justice, and peace.

Recent high-profile attacks on humanitarian professionals and operations in Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq, among others, call attention to the growing vulnerabilities of humanitarian staff and medical operations at the frontlines. This panel discussion, organized in collaboration with the Harvard Kennedy School's Middle East Initiative, will explore the opportunities and challenges of negotiating protections for medical missions at the frontline, focusing particularly on tools and methods to strengthen humanitarian operations and negotiation capacity in complex environments.

Humanitarian actors are increasingly finding themselves in contexts where the application of the norms and concepts of international humanitarian law (IHL) is contested.

On August 24, 2016 the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, commonly referred to as the FARC, signed a peace deal after 52 years of internal conflict. This peace deal marks a potential end to the over half century of violence that has killed over 220,000 Colombians and displaced more than six million. Dr. Jennifer Schirmer, a current fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government spent fourteen years working on peace-building and preparatory dialogue training in Colombia.

In this practitioner profile, ATHA is joined by Sareta Ashraph, Chief Analyst on the Commission of Inquiry on the Syria since May 2012. The Commission was established by the UN Human Rights Council in August 2011 to investigate and document violations of international law in Syria. Sareta led the investigation and drafting of the Commission's recent report "They Came To Destroy: ISIS Crimes Against the Yazidis", which determined that ISIS was committing the crime of genocide.

The World Humanitarian Summit, held in Istanbul on May 23-24, 2016, was guided by a framework articulated by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s “Agenda for Humanity,” focusing on areas such preventing and ending conflicts, and enhancing promotion of community resilience, proactive emergency planning, and inter-organizational coordination.In this Practitioner Profile, ATHA is joined by Dr. Jemilah Mahmood, Under Secretary General for Partnerships at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). Dr. Mahmood shares her insights on the results and outcomes of the discussions and commitments in Istanbul.

The World Humanitarian Summit (WHS) convened 9,000 representatives from humanitarian agencies, governments, crisis-affected communities, and the private sector. Driven by a consensus that the current humanitarian system is unable to cope with the intensifying needs of populations affected by conflict and disaster, the WHS aimed to take stock of the achievements and failed interventions of a sector confronted with rapidly evolving challenges and recommit stakeholders to the foundational principles of humanitarian assistance, protection, and institutional reform. Speakers: Christina Bennett, ODI; Dr. Martin Barber, Special Advisor to OCHA on WHS; Hugo Slim, Head of Policy, ICRC, James Munn, Head of Policy, NRC; Raphael Gorgeu, Director of Partnership and Policy, ICVA.

Amidst recurring violations of international humanitarian law (IHL), strengthening compliance with these international norms is indispensable to the protection of civilians in armed conflict. Moreover, in situations of armed conflict, there is substantial potential for humanitarian professionals to strengthen compliance on the frontlines. In this episode, this podcast will examine opportunities for field professionals to identify the appropriate methods of monitoring and reporting violations of IHL committed by state and non-state actors in their operations. Speakers: Dr. Annyssa Bellal, Legal Adviser, Geneva Call; Strategic Adviser on IHL, Geneva Academy of IHL and Human Rights; Manuel Bessler, Manuel Bessler, Head of Swiss Humanitarian Aid; Thomas Dallal, Deputy Director, IHL Resource Centre, Diakonia Middle East Regional Office; Fausto Aarya De Santis, Protection Expert Currently working as a Coordinator with Oxfam GB in Yemen; Dr. Knut Dörmann, Chief Legal Officer, Head of the Legal Division, International Commitee of the Red Cross (ICRC); Dr. Andrew Ladley, Senior Advisor, Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue; Susannah Sirkin, Director of International Policy and Partnerships, Physicians for Human Rights.

In this episode, we interview Michaël Neuman, the director of studies at Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), Centre de réflexion sur l'action et les savoirs humanitaires (MSF-Crash). We discuss the drivers of professionalization in the context of humanitarian security, drawing on examples from a new book by the MSF-Crash team.

Two years of conflict in the Donbas region of Ukraine has continued to intensify since early March of this year. An estimated 3.1 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance. In this episode, we examine the barriers humanitarian organizations face as they try to access and assist this population. Speakers: John Cerone, Visiting Professor of International Law, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University; Simon Eugster, Chief Observer at the OSCE Observer Mission at the Russian Checkpoints Gukovo and Donetsk; Kristina Jovanovski, Journalist; Annette Lyth, Humanitarian Consultant; Florian Razesberger, Head of Human Dimension Unit, OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine; Giancarlo Stopponi, WFP Head of Office in Ukraine.