On 23 August 2012, Simone Eymann on behalf of the ICT4Peace Foundation participated in a one-day consultation, co-organised by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and InterAction, on “Protection in violent situations: standards for managing sensitive information”.
In 2009, based on extensive consultations with humanitarian and human rights organizations, the ICRC published a comprehensive set of “Professional standards for protection work”. This publication can be found here.
These standards include a chapter on “Managing sensitive protection information” which is now being revised and updated in light of rapidly proliferating initiatives to make new uses of information technology for protection. A diverse group of human rights and humanitarian actors attended the consultations to review the revised draft in order to generate specific advice on the scope and language of the standards on protection and managing sensitive information as it relates to new uses of information technology. Discussion topics included:
Participants were asked to send in their comments until early September. The revised draft will be published early 2013.