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Self Report 2019

The self-report on WHS Commitments below is organized according to the 24 transformations of the Agenda for Humanity. It is based on commitments pledged at the time of report submission. Click on the 'Expand' symbol to expand each section and read the reporting inputs by transformation.

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  • 2A
    Respect and protect civilians and civilian objects in the conduct of hostilities

    Individual Commitments (7)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility

    • Handicap International will continue its collaboration with members of INEW, participating in INEW meetings and governance, taking part in coordination of the network activities, providing specific expertise as a field operator on clearance, risk education and victim assistance, and implementing joint activities.


    • Partnership
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity

    • Handicap International will advocate at the national, regional, and international levels on this issue, raising awareness of the harm caused from the use of explosive weapons in populated areas and need for a political declaration to prevent such harm and in particular to end the use of explosive weapons with wide area effect in populated areas, through outreach to government representatives, parliamentarians and media. International outreach will take place annually in a variety of forums, in coordination with other INEW members. National outreach will be carried out through the eight national associations of Handicap International in Europe and Northern America, and through its programs present in around 60 countries.


    • Advocacy
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity

    • Handicap International will continue to collect data and document the humanitarian harm resulting from the use of wide-area explosive weapons in populated areas, and will publish a range of reports and papers on this theme in the coming years, with a particular focus in 2016 on the situation in Syria, and on the correlation between the use of explosive weapons in populated areas and displacement of populations.


    • Operational
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity

    • Handicap International will continue to lead a process towards the development of recommendations on victim assistance provision in a future political declaration on that topic, and guidelines on how to implement assistance to victims of explosive weapons. In that process, it will ensure participation of survivors of explosive weapons and other persons impacted by the use of explosive weapons.


    • Partnership
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity

    • Handicap International will continue to respond to the humanitarian needs of communities affected by the use of explosive weapons in populated areas, through responding to their basic needs such as food, shelter, child protection, water, sanitation and health, psychological interventions/assistance, education to the risks posed by explosive remnants of war, clearance and victim assistance.


    • Operational
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity

    • Handicap International will raise awareness towards and educate the wider public on the harm caused by the use of explosive weapons in populated areas by developing public campaigns and media outreach on explosive weapons at the national and international level, with a special focus on its national associations.


    • Advocacy
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity

    • Handicap International will support the participation of survivors and other persons impacted by the use of explosive weapons in all events or meetings related to this topic at the national, regional or international level. It will gather testimonies of survivors and other persons impacted in past crises.


    • Operational
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity

    Core Commitments (1)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • Commit to promote and enhance the protection of civilians and civilian objects, especially in the conduct of hostilities, for instance by working to prevent civilian harm resulting from the use of wide-area explosive weapons in populated areas, and by sparing civilian infrastructure from military use in the conduct of military operations.
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity
    1. A. Highlight concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2018 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures as well as any good practices and examples of innovation.

    In 2018 Humanity & Inclusion (HI) raised awareness and educated the wider public on long-term consequences of explosive weapons with wide-area effects in populated areas (EWIPA) and advocated towards States to take immediate action and develop and adopt a political commitment to reduce harm and increase the protection of civilians living through conflict, by stopping the use of explosive weapons with wide area effects in populated areas, and by providing a framework for assistance to victims including affected communities.

    The main results achieved last year were remarkable. Namely, HI managed to:

    i)     Disseminate the results of the Maputo Regional Meeting on Protecting Civilians from the Use of Explosive Weapons in Populated Areas;

    ii)    Foster the adoption of the Santiago Communiqué at the end of the regional meeting in Santiago, Chile,on 5 December 2018, bringing together 23 States from the Latin America and the Caribbean region who committed to avoid the use of explosive weapons in populated areas; 

    iii)   Attend and influence discussions at the UNGA First Committee, 2018. As member of the International Network on Explosive Weapons (INEW), HI reached out and lobbied several country delegates at UN level on the importance of a strong commitment against the use of EWIPA. These efforts led to 50 States expressing grave concern over the humanitarian harm caused by the use of explosive weapons in populated areas in an unprecedented joint statement at the meeting of the UNGA First Committee.

    iv)   Raise the importance of ensuring assistance to direct and indirect victims of explosive weapons during the Humanitarian Disarmament Forum.  

    v)    Continue responding to the humanitarian needs of communities affected by the use of explosive weapons in populated areas.

    vi)           Launch a parliamentary appeal bound to encourage Parliamentarians to take action to end the use of EWIPA.

    2. A. Please select no more than 3 key challenges faced in implementing the commitments related to this transformation. Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Adherence to standards and/or humanitarian principles
    • Field conditions, including insecurity and access
    • IHL and IHRL compliance and accountability
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    • Many countries believe that new policies and standards are not necessary, thus support for developing a political commitment to end the use of explosive weapons with wide areas effect in populated areas varies greatly.
    • Limited access to affected areas hinders assistance to victims and data gathering.

    3. What steps or actions are needed to make collective progress to achieve this transformation?

    Joint coordination among civil society actors, UN agencies, the International Committee of the Red Cross and champion States is crucial and must continue to launch a diplomatic process in 2019 aimed at adopting an international political declaration to end the use of explosive weapons with wide area effects in populated areas.

    Keywords

    Protection

  • 3G
    Address other groups or minorities in crisis settings

    Individual Commitments (9)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility

    • Handicap International will increase participation of persons with disabilities in decision making and planning processes of humanitarian programmes, including in relevant assessment and coordination mechanisms.


    • Operational
    • Leave No One Behind

    • Handicap International endorses the Charter on Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action and immediately commits towards its implementation.


    • Policy
    • Leave No One Behind

    • Handicap International will support the development and implementation of global guidelines on disability inclusion in humanitarian action to be initiated in 2016.  It is ready to take a leading role in the development of such guidelines in some of the following sectors: water, sanitation and hygiene, shelter, food, health and protection.


    • Policy
    • Leave No One Behind

    • Handicap International will improve the development and tools to continue to ethically collect quantitative and qualitative data on persons with disabilities, disaggregated by age and sex, in the view of increasing comparison and reliability of humanitarian programs.


    • Operational
    • Leave No One Behind

    • Handicap International will strengthen the use of and support the development of improved and innovative methods and means of communication to ensure that persons with disabilities are reached during emergencies.


    • Operational
    • Leave No One Behind

    • Handicap International will implement the principle of universal design in programming and in post-emergency reconstructions in order to strive to remove physical, communication and attitudinal barriers and discrimination.


    • Operational
    • Leave No One Behind

    • Handicap International will reinforce pre-positioning of material, including assistive devices, to timely deploy and make resources available to individuals and their families who are in need of specific assistance during humanitarian emergencies.


    • Operational
    • Leave No One Behind

    • Handicap International will expand the implementation of advocacy and awareness raising programmes and trainings to enhance the understanding of the needs of persons with disabilities to all humanitarian actors willing to strengthen their response towards persons with disabilities.


    • Advocacy
    • Leave No One Behind

    • Handicap International will foster partnership with local and national organizations, including organisations representatives of persons with disabilities, in humanitarian emergencies, building their capacities and benefiting from their expertise on inclusion.


    • Partnership
    • Leave No One Behind
    1. A. Highlight concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2018 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures as well as any good practices and examples of innovation.

    Humanity & Inclusion (HI) actively promotes the Charter on Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action, in line with international humanitarian law and international human rights law, in particular the UN Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), in partnership with the International Disability Alliance (IDA) and CBM. Together they do this through generating evidence, building resources and capacity, improving accountability, and influencing policies and practices. HI, IDA and CBM are contributing to establish a capacity building mechanism on CRPD Article 11 under the Bridge CRPD-SDGs Training Initiative.

    HI is co-chairing the IASC Task Team on Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action, together with IDA and UNICEF, and contributing its technical knowledge. In particular, HI has supported the collection and review of case studies to be published alongside the IASC Guidelines.

    HI is also working with IDA and the Washington Group on Disability Statistics to enhance the availability and use of quality data on persons with disability by humanitarian actors. A learning toolkit on “Collecting Data for the Inclusion of Persons with disabilities in Humanitarian Action – The Application of the WGQs” will be disseminated to the humanitarian community in 2019. HI has also seconded staff to DFID to provide technical assistance to DFID and its implementing partners to more effectively collect and use data on persons with disabilities to mainstream disability inclusion in programming.

    At field level, about 20 HI programs have dedicated projects and activities to promote inclusive humanitarian action, influencing strategic planning and humanitarian programming. The programs are implemented in different phases of humanitarian action, including disaster risk reduction (DRR), both supporting host communities, refugees and internally displaced populations. Examples of projects and activities in Niger, Gaza, South Sudan, DRC, Yemen, Jordan, Kenya, Ethiopia, the Philippines, Nepal and Pakistan are available in the attached annex.

    B. Please select if your report relates to any initiatives launched at World Humanitarian summit
    • Charter on Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action
    2. A. Please select no more than 3 key challenges faced in implementing the commitments related to this transformation. Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Data and analysis
    • Human resources/capacity
    • Preparedness
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    HI would argue that essential components of inclusive humanitarian action are: establishing sustainable strategies for increasing the capacity and understanding of humanitarian staff; the collection and analysis of data to develop relevant, effective and inclusive programming; and preparedness, DRR and pre-crisis actions to mitigate, prevent and prepare for crises.

    3. What steps or actions are needed to make collective progress to achieve this transformation?

    Continued advocacy is necessary, but most of all change must happen in the practices of actors on the field. Focus should be put on supporting efforts to strengthen robust and comparable data collection to make the programming cycle inclusive; supporting capacity development through technical support and good practices exchanges, and the roll out of IASC Guidelines; and strengthening coordination among all stakeholders and the participation of persons with disabilities and their representative’s organisations, including through the cluster system.

    Keywords

    Disability, Disaster Risk Reduction

Attachments

  • WHS Commitments Attachments
    Transformation - 3G | Disability