PHAP: Learning sessions and webinars

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World Humanitarian Summit: Introduction to the Eastern and Southern Africa regional consultation Mar 01, 2016

Show notes

On 26 September 2014, PHAP hosted a live online event discussing the upcoming Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) regional consultation. This is the third of the World Humanitarian Summit regional consultations leading up to the major global event, to take place in Istanbul in May 2016.
Panelists for this event included Ignacio Leon-Garcia, the Head of the OCHA Regional Office in Southern Africa, Anne Mitaru, an international humanitarian lawyer working with Save the Children as the Humanitarian Advocacy Adviser for East Africa, and Philippe Habinshuti, the Director of Disaster Response and Recovery in MIDIMAR.
Read more at https://phap.org/WHS-26Sep2014

World Humanitarian Summit: Outcomes from the North and Southeast Asia Regional Consultation Mar 01, 2016

Show notes

On Thursday, 14 August, PHAP hosted a live online event to discuss the outcomes of the North & South East Asia regional consultation for the World Humanitarian Summit, which took place in Tokyo on 23-24 July.
Panelists for the event included Oliver Lacey-Hall, Head of the Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA); Takeshi Komino, Head of Emergencies, Church World Service (CWS) and delegate of the Asian Disaster Response and Reduction Network (ADRRN); and Pansy Tun Thein, Executive Director of the Local Resource Centre (LRC) from Myanmar, representing local civil society organizations.
Read more at https://phap.org/WHS-14Aug2014

The Future of Humanitarian Action - Live Q&A on the World Humanitarian Summit with Valerie Amos Mar 01, 2016

Show notes

During this live online event on 11 July, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos presented her vision for the World Humanitarian Summit and answered questions from participants.
Since the current international humanitarian system was created 25 years ago, more and more people are affected by violence and hardship. The world has changed and humanitarian action must keep pace. Between 2004 and 2013, humanitarian funding requests roughly doubled from $6 billion to over $10 billion per year. In that same period, the number of people targeted through formal funding appeals rose from approximately 30 to 70 million. Moreover, global challenges like urbanization, population growth in some countries, environmental degradation, conflict, climate change and resource scarcity mean that humanitarian needs and costs are rising beyond the capacity of the global humanitarian system to cope.
Read more at https://phap.org/WHS-11Jul2014

World Humanitarian Summit - North & Southeast Asia: Live online consultation on humanitarian response in situations of armed conflict Mar 01, 2016

Show notes

Speakers: Carsten Völz, Cecilia Jimenez, Sebastian Rhodes Stampa
On 19 June 2014, PHAP hosted an online event on the theme of humanitarian response in situations of armed conflict in North and Southeast Asia. The event dealt with regionally relevant issues such as population displacement, accountability of governments and aid organizations, access of people to humanitarian action, and protection of civilians. Speakers included Carsten Völz, Humanitarian Director of Oxfam International, Cecilia Jimenez, National Director of the IDP Project for the Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines, and Sebastian Rhodes Stampa, Deputy Head of the regional office for Asia and the Pacific of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
Read more at https://phap.org/WHS-19Jun2014

World Humanitarian Summit - North & Southeast Asia: Live online consultation on humanitarian effectiveness in a changing landscape Mar 01, 2016

Show notes

Speakers: Oliver Lacey-Hall, Jagan Chapagain, Lilianne Fan
On 12 June 2014, PHAP hosted a live online briefing and consultation for the World Humanitarian Summit on the topic of the consequences of a changing humanitarian landscape on humanitarian effectiveness in North and Southeast Asia. Speakers included Mr Oliver Lacey-Hall, Head of the Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Mr Jagan Chapagain, Regional Director of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) Asia Pacific zone, and Ms Lilianne Fan, Humanitarian Policy Group (HPG) of the Overseas Development Institute (ODI).
This live online event was an opportunity for participants to get better acquainted with the regional consultation process and provide views and ideas on the topics discussed, ultimately helping to shape the agenda for the upcoming regional consultation event.
Read more at https://phap.org/WHS-12Jun2014

Interactive briefing on World Humanitarian Summit (with Jemilah Mahmood, Linda Poteat, Oliver Lacey-Hall, Paul Empole) Mar 01, 2016

Show notes

Speakers: Jemilah Mahmood, Linda Poteat, Oliver Lacey-Hall, Paul Empole
Event date: 28 May 2015
This live online event was an excellent opportunity for everyone interested to learn more about the World Humanitarian Summit, to take place in Istanbul in 2016, and the process leading up to this major global event. Participants learned about both the online and onsite consultation processes at the regional and global level, the main questions that will be discussed, how to provide input to the consultations, and how the results are meant to help humanitarian action move forward. Hosted by PHAP, this interactive information event featured Jemilah Mahmood, Chief of the World Humanitarian Summit Secretariat; Linda Poteat, Discussion Chair of the Online Global Consultations; Oliver Lacey-Hall, Head of the Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA); and Paul Empole, Discussion Chair of the Online West and Central Africa Consultations.
The Summit, convened by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and managed by OCHA, will bring all interested humanitarian stakeholders together to set out a new course for how we collaborate in the vital effort to prepare for and respond to natural disasters and man-made crises around the world.
Read more at https://phap.org/WHS-28May2015

Expert Briefing: International law at the vanishing point of war (Humanitarian Law and Policy) Feb 24, 2016

Show notes

Speakers: Naz Modirzadeh, Founding Director of the Harvard Law School Program on International Law and Armed Conflict (PILAC) & Dustin Lewis, Senior Researcher, PILAC
In December 2014, President Obama said that the United States “combat mission in Afghanistan is ending, and the longest war in American history is coming to a responsible conclusion.” Yet over a year later hostilities continue. What are the stakes for humanitarian organizations in the ongoing application—or not—of international humanitarian law (IHL) in Afghanistan and in other contemporary armed conflicts? Does international law provide sufficient guidance for humanitarians and other battlefield actors to discern when today’s armed conflicts end? At this PHAP online IHL expert briefing, Naz Modirzadeh and Dustin Lewis, of the Harvard Law School Program on International Law and Armed Conflict (PILAC), will discuss initial PILAC research on the “end” of armed conflict under IHL. Among the issues they will explore are:
What are the IHL criteria pertaining to the end of armed conflict?
Who benefits, and who is disadvantaged, from a presumption of the continued application of IHL—both its more permissive and its more restrictive elements?
What is at stake for humanitarian actors, for the parties to the conflict, and for affected civilian populations?
Read more at https://phap.org/OEV-23Feb2016

World Humanitarian Summit: NGO reactions to the Secretary-General's Report Feb 19, 2016

Show notes

With the launch of “One Humanity: Shared Responsibility”, the Report of the Secretary-General for the World Humanitarian Summit, the Summit process is entering the final stretch of preparation for Istanbul.
On 18 February 2016, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) and PHAP organized an online event to discuss the report and its impact on the future of humanitarian action. This was an opportunity to interact with a panel of NGO representatives on some key questions, such as:
- Does the report address key concerns raised by NGOs in recent years?
- Does the report adequately cover the most pressing matters for improving humanitarian action for today and tomorrow?
- How well does the report include recommendations from the regional consultations and the synthesis report?
- How well does the "Agenda for Humanity" fulfil your vision of meaningful impact on the lives of affected people?
Speakers:
- Anne Héry, Director of Advocacy and Institutional Relations, Handicap International Federation
- Virginie Lefèvre, Program and Partnerships Coordinator, Amel Association International
- Brooke Lauten, Humanitarian Policy and Protection Advisor, Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC)
- Ahmad Faizal Perdaus, President, MERCY Malaysia
- Gareth Price-Jones, Senior Humanitarian Policy and Advocacy Coordinator, CARE International
For further info, visit https://phap.org/WHS-18Feb2016

OLS HLP 17. IHL and UN Peacekeeping Operations (with Katarina Grenfell) Feb 08, 2016

Show notes

Main speaker: Katarina Grenfell, Legal Officer in the UN Office of Legal Affairs
The mandates of contemporary United Nations Peacekeeping missions are increasingly robust, often authorizing a range of activities far beyond those historically envisioned as within the remit of UN peacekeepers. For instance, the mandate for the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) includes the authorization to “carry out targeted offensive operations through the Intervention Brigade [...] [to] prevent the expansion of all armed groups, neutralize these groups, and disarm them.” This expansion has resulted in a number of legal and operational challenges, including the core question of the application of international humanitarian law to UN peacekeeping contingents. The involvement of UN peacekeepers in hostilities raises a host of issues, including:
- What legal framework involves the use of force on the part of the peacekeepers?
- What protection, if any, are the peacekeepers afforded under international law?
- What is the threshold for the application of international humanitarian law?
- What is the temporal and geographic scope of the application of international humanitarian law?
This session addressed the fundamental issue of under what circumstances international humanitarian law regulates UN peacekeepers, including a discussion when and for how long international humanitarian law applies in a specific context.
For more info, resources and assessments for PHAP members, visit https://phap.org/OLS-HLP-17

OLS HLP 16. The ICC and humanitarian actors (with Théo Boutruche) Feb 08, 2016

Show notes

Main speaker: Théo Boutruche, Independent consultant in international human rights and humanitarian law
The International Criminal Court (ICC) is heralded as a significant development in the field of international justice and accountability. Established by the Rome Statute, the ICC is a unique legal mechanism in terms of its broad jurisdiction over war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and the crime of aggression. Though the ICC represents an important commitment to international justice, it is not free from challenges and critique. One such issue is the relationship between the ICC and humanitarian actors. Humanitarian actors often have unparalleled access in the contexts the Court investigates, and because of this humanitarians may be approached to cooperate with the Court. Such cooperation, however, complicates – and potentially directly threatens – the principles that govern humanitarians’ operations. This event will explore the issues and debates stemming from the relationship between the ICC and humanitarian actors.
For more info, resources, and assessments for PHAP members, visit https://phap.org/OLS-HLP-16

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