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ATHA Podcast
ATHA Podcast

ATHA Podcast

Available Episodes 10

Games, simulations, and role-playing exercises have become an important component of capacity building endeavors across the humanitarian sector. Additionally—as reflected in the International Committee of the Red Cross’s (ICRC’s) work with video game developers to ensure that certain violent video games accurately reflect norms of international humanitarian law (IHL)—games can be an important avenue toward disseminating knowledge and awareness of IHL and humanitarianism.

In this Practitioner Profile, we discuss the use of international humanitarian law as a framework for humanitarian negotiation, the pressures that current anti-terrorism laws place on humanitarians, and best practices for maintaining credibility in complex negotiations. Since 2011, Michiel Hofman has worked as a senior humanitarian specialist for MSF in Belfast, concentrating on research, training and operational support as well as publications in the humanitarian field.

In many of today’s frontline humanitarian environments, access is increasingly difficult to obtain and maintain, and continued engagement with non-state armed actors is an integral aspect of ensuring assistance and protection activities and advocating for compliance with international legal standards. Humanitarian professionals working in these spaces must navigate myriad challenges and dilemmas in order to negotiate an operational space for engagement with armed groups.

Part II. On August 24, 2016 the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, commonly referred to as the FARC, signed a peace deal after 52 years of internal conflict. This peace deal marks a potential end to the over half century of violence that has killed over 220,000 Colombians and displaced more than six million.

Through discussions with experts and humanitarian practitioners, this podcast will explore the impact of gender and other aspects of diversity on frontline humanitarian negotiations.

The Colombian government and Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) recently signed peace accords bringing an end to 52 years of violent conflict. For his efforts to negotiate and conclude the peace deal, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos was awarded this year’s Nobel Peace Prize on October 7. Yet on October 2, Colombian voters rejected the deal by a narrow margin in a national referendum, putting the peace process back in limbo. In this practitioner profile, ATHA discusses the latest developments in the Colombian peace process, and what a gender perspective can teach us about violence, transitional justice, and peace.

Recent high-profile attacks on humanitarian professionals and operations in Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq, among others, call attention to the growing vulnerabilities of humanitarian staff and medical operations at the frontlines. This panel discussion, organized in collaboration with the Harvard Kennedy School's Middle East Initiative, will explore the opportunities and challenges of negotiating protections for medical missions at the frontline, focusing particularly on tools and methods to strengthen humanitarian operations and negotiation capacity in complex environments.

Humanitarian actors are increasingly finding themselves in contexts where the application of the norms and concepts of international humanitarian law (IHL) is contested.

Amidst recurring violations of international humanitarian law (IHL), strengthening compliance with these international norms is indispensable to the protection of civilians in armed conflict. Moreover, in situations of armed conflict, there is substantial potential for humanitarian professionals to strengthen compliance on the frontlines. In this episode, this podcast will examine opportunities for field professionals to identify the appropriate methods of monitoring and reporting violations of IHL committed by state and non-state actors in their operations. Speakers: Dr. Annyssa Bellal, Legal Adviser, Geneva Call; Strategic Adviser on IHL, Geneva Academy of IHL and Human Rights; Manuel Bessler, Manuel Bessler, Head of Swiss Humanitarian Aid; Thomas Dallal, Deputy Director, IHL Resource Centre, Diakonia Middle East Regional Office; Fausto Aarya De Santis, Protection Expert Currently working as a Coordinator with Oxfam GB in Yemen; Dr. Knut Dörmann, Chief Legal Officer, Head of the Legal Division, International Commitee of the Red Cross (ICRC); Dr. Andrew Ladley, Senior Advisor, Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue; Susannah Sirkin, Director of International Policy and Partnerships, Physicians for Human Rights.

In this episode, we interview Michaël Neuman, the director of studies at Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), Centre de réflexion sur l'action et les savoirs humanitaires (MSF-Crash). We discuss the drivers of professionalization in the context of humanitarian security, drawing on examples from a new book by the MSF-Crash team.