Security of NGOs: initiatives and legal context

A study by the Union of International Associations (UIA): The following initiatives are linked to relevant web documents, which may also include links to other resources, including organizations and bibliographic material.

Developing codes of conduct: Specific to NGOs

• The Sphere Project: Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response
• The People in Aid Code of Best Practice
• Guidance for evaluating humanitarian assistance in complex emergencies, Development Assessment Committee, OECD (1999)
• Promoting norms to limit violence in crisis situations: challenges, strategies and alliances

Developing UN-civil society relationships

• Final Report from the Millennium Forum Peace, Security and Disarmament Thematic Group (12 June 2000)

Developing codes of conduct: General

• The Code of Conduct for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and NGOs in Disaster Relief (February 1996)
• The Principles and Rules for Red Cross and Red Crescent Disaster Relief (February 1996)

Applying humanitarian law

• Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts: Protocol 1 (December 1979)
• Protocol II: Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and Relating to the Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts: Protocol II (1978)
• Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948
• International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 1966
• Selected Sections from International Treaties and Conventions Relevant to Personnel / Human Rights Practitioners
• Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize Convention (1948)
• International Human Rights Instruments
• Working Groups on the Right to Development
• Proclamation of Teheran (1968)
• Declaration on Social Progress and Development (1969)
• Declaration on the Right of Peoples to Peace (1984)
• Universal Declaration on the Eradication of Hunger and Malnutrition (1974)
• Declaration on the Human Rights of Individuals Who are not Nationals of the Country in which They Live (1985)
• Progress report of the Intergovernmental Group of Experts on the Right to Development on its first session (Geneva, 4-15 November 1996)
• Report on United Nations Commission on Human Rights: Fifty-third Session: Thematic Reports: Right to Development (10 March to 18 April 1997)
• 3rd International Security Forum. Networking the Security Community in the Information Age (October 1998)
• Working for solutions to crises: The development response, UNDP (1999)
• Convention on the Safety of United Nations and Associated Personnel (1994)
• Statutes for International Criminal Court (1998)
• European Commission on Security of Relief Workers and Humanitarian Space (18 May 1998)
• Security of Humanitarian aid workers: A concern at the heart of the EU’s humanitarian action (2010)