Protection

Austcare has changed its name to ActionAid Australia For more information please visit the ActionAid website www.actionaid.org.au

Today, around 40 million people are displaced worldwide. This figure has hardly changed in five years, meaning that for every person able to go home, someone else was forced to flee conflict and human rights violations. Approximately 10 million are displaced in the Asia Pacific region alone.

The goal of Austcare's Protect Now program is to improve the safety, dignity and integrity of civilians facing threats to their security and freedom.

Why do people need protection?

People affected by war, political instability and/or natural disaster can be particularly vulnerable to human rights violations. During conflict, civilians have a heightened risk of intimidation, physical and sexual abuse, forced recruitment, landmines, attacks by armed groups and disease. Furthermore, people in conflict and natural disaster situations can be vulnerable to deliberate discrimination and deprivation in health, education, property rights, access to water and economic opportunities.

In these situations, family, community and government structures that usually provide a protective environment can break down. Power dynamics can be exacerbated and exploited, causing some individuals or groups to become vulnerable to abuse, deliberate violence and discrimination.

For many people, flight is the only option. Yet refugees and internally displaced persons can face extreme risks during flight, as well as in camps. Many refugees and internally displaced people (IDPs) have no option but to stay in camps for many years, even decades because they are unable to return home for fear of persecution and/or due to unresolved political factors.

Conflict and insecurity can create repeated cycles of displacement, frustration, fear and violence.

What is protection?

Protection means improving safety and security. For Austcare, effective protection aims to reduce individual and community vulnerability to risks, reduce threats by targeting perpetrators and those in authority, and empower people to increase their right to safety and security with dignity.

Austcare has a rights-based approach. Our work is guided by the international legal framework, and we work with individuals and communities, not as passive beneficiaries but agents of change and rights-holders. We work with people at risk with the aim of identifying protective strategies aimed at preventing risks and threats, increasing access to rights, and improving safety and security.

Who has the responsibility to protect?

Governments are responsible for protecting civilians within their territory. However, people cannot always rely on their governments to ensure their safety and basic rights.

Where governments are unable or unwilling to prevent or respond to violations or abuses, the international community has the duty to ensure that the rights, dignity and safety of civilians are respected.

Increasingly the international community has recognised that in order to address the complexity and magnitude of the global protection needs of civilians, a wider and more diverse range of actors is needed. Many UN agencies, local and international NGOs have initiated protection activities or have integrated a "protection lens" across their work. A significant hurdle to protection has been the limited ability for humanitarian agencies to quickly deploy experienced, well-qualified civilian protection staff in an emergency.

At the World Leaders' Summit in September 2005, States agreed that they had a responsibility to protect (R2P) civilians when another government is unable or unwilling to do so. The R2P framework establishes unprecedented international responsibilities to prevent and respond to situations where war crimes, genocide, ethnic cleansing or crimes against humanity are imminent or in progress.

Protect Now - Austcare's Response

Austcare established the Protect Now program in 2005 in recognition of the global challenge facing the international humanitarian community to ensure protection for people affected by conflict and natural disaster, coupled with the ongoing failure of governments to take responsibility for their own civilians.

Protection and empowerment are the two key features of Austcare's mission: to work with people affected by conflict and natural disaster to build human security.

Austcare's Protect Now program covers four integrated elements:

1. Protection mainstreaming

Austcare has prioritised protection as a core element of our work. Austcare has commenced an initiative to integrate a protection lens into our preparedness, emergency and early recovery programs.

2. Rapid Response Register

Austcare's Rapid Response Register (RRR) is a roster of professional protection practitioners available for deployment to United Nations agencies and Austcare programs for periods of 3-12 months. This register is the only mechanism in Australia focused solely on protection deployments.

The RRR is open to those with experience working with displaced or other very vulnerable communities, a thorough knowledge of human rights issues and qualifications in a relevant field.

Find out how to apply for our Rapid Response Register.

Please also see the RRR Frequently Asked Questions.

Other useful resources:

An ALNAP guide for humanitarian agencies

PROACTIVE PRESENCE Field strategies for civilian protection

3. Research and Policy

Austcare recognises the importance of linking research and practice. Action research encourages critical reflection by our programming team and contribution of their expertise into the research. Such research informs Austcare's work with people and communities to develop strategies targeting protection concerns, human security, and sustainable poverty reduction.

4. Advocacy and campaigning

Austcare raises awareness in Australia and abroad highlighting vulnerable people's concerns, gathering support for new initiatives (such as the Responsibility to Protect), and advocating with humanitarian agencies to develop a common protection framework.

Austcare Protection Chapter

Austcare also raises awareness of protection issues within the corporate sector through the Austcare Protection Chapter (APC). The APC was established on International Human Rights Day (10 December) in 2005. The APC is a group of four leading corporate legal firms in Australia, namely DLA Phillips Fox, Sparke Helmore, Minter Ellison and Workplace Law. The APC provides financial, professional and pro bono contributions to Austcare for the Protect Now program and provides opportunities for Australian lawyers to enhance their skills and expertise in international humanitarian, refugee and human rights law.

Austcare has changed its name to ActionAid Australia For more information please visit the ActionAid website www.actionaid.org.au