Protection

The work of the Protection Cluster aims at taking action to keep people safe from violence, coercion and deliberate deprivation. Humanitarian actors need to take steps to understand and mitigate associated risks. Protection of affected people in the humanitarian space is guided by the following four commonly agreed upon principles:

1. Enhance the safety, dignity and rights of people, and avoid exposing them to harm.
2. Ensure people’s access to assistance according to need and without discrimination.
3. Assist people to recover from the physical and psychological effects of threatened or actual violence, coercion and deliberate deprivation.
4. Help people claim their rights.¹

Protection principle 1 encompasses the environment in its objective to avoid exposing people to harm. Humanitarian activities can have unintended impacts on the environment that lead to people’s safety, dignity and rights being compromised, whether from an individual or group perspective.

For example:

• Environmental impacts:
  • The community may have a low self-sufficiency as a result of environmental degradation. This could include the vulnerability of socially excluded groups such as LGBTQ and other vulnerable groups, which may find their access to scarce resources like clean water or energy compromised²
  • Deforestation caused by increased need for shelter material or over use of water resources could result in women and children having to travel further to collect firewood or water, resulting in higher risk of exposure for these vulnerable groups
  • Discriminatory social norms may lead to certain groups not having access to information or being excluded from decision-making processes, which in turn may compromise their access to environmental services such as water.
• Dignity – forcing people to move or to take unsafe and/or culturally inappropriate lodging due to environmental stresses.
• Rights – people have a right to clean water and an adequate standard of living, where environmental stresses may compromise these rights.

The degree of protection for affected people is directly related to the extent humanitarian actors are able to address above-mentioned key concerns in programming and implementation. If these links are overseen, patterns might be re-enforced (e.g. increased use of fuelwood and water) which not only increase environmental stresses but also increase the risk to the population. Consequently, a thorough analysis of the links between environmental factors and protection is needed. Answering the following question might help as first step to include protection and environment into programming and implementation:

• What do you see as key protection risks – including things that may not be obvious – that you feel should be particularly highlighted?
• Are there any protection principles related to environment that inform your sector’s activities that you feel should be emphasised?
• What do you feel should be underscored in terms of how protection and environment be integrated into your sector’s activities?

In times of increasing effects of climate change, the above-mentioned patterns are most likely to further increase. It is therefore imperative for actors engaged in humanitarian operations at all levels to be aware of the linkages and take them into account in their programming and implementation activities.