Humanitarian Frameworks
Toolkits & Guides
News Agencies
Organizations
Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women
The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), adopted in 1979 by the UN General Assembly, is often described as an international bill of rights for women. Consisting of a preamble and 30 articles, it defines what constitutes discrimination against women and sets up an agenda for national action to end such discrimination. (Source)
Convention Relating to the Status of the Refugee
The 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees is the key legal document that forms the basis of our work. Signed by 144 State parties, it defines the term ‘refugee’ and outlines the rights of the displaced, as well as the legal obligations of States to protect them. (Source)
Convention on the Rights of the Child
The Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is the body of 18 Independent experts that monitors implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child by its State parties. It also monitors implementation of two Optional Protocols to the Convention, on involvement of children in armed conflict and on sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography. On 19 December 2011, the UN General Assembly approved a third Optional Protocol on a communications procedure, which will allow individual children to submit complaints regarding specific violations of their rights under the Convention and its first two optional protocols. The Protocol entered into force in April 2014. (Source)
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
The purpose of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is to promote, protect and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights by persons with disabilities. It covers a number of key areas such as accessibility, personal mobility, health, education, employment, habilitation and rehabilitation, participation in political life, and equality and non-discrimination. The convention marks a shift in thinking about disability from a social welfare concern, to a human rights issue, which acknowledges that societal barriers and prejudices are themselves disabling. (Source)
Kampala Convention
Every year on 6 December, the African Union (AU) comes together to celebrate the anniversary of the Kampala Convention, which came into force in 2012. Formally known as the African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa, it is the world’s first continental instrument that legally binds governments to protect the rights and wellbeing of people forced to flee their homes by conflict, violence, disasters and human rights abuses. The convention is a shared framework, but the continent’s diverse realities and challenges mean that individual countries have taken different approaches to it. (Source)
Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) represents the world's commitment to universal ideals of human dignity. We have a unique mandate from the international community to promote and protect all human rights. (Source)
Universal Declaration on Human Rights
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is a milestone document in the history of human rights. Drafted by representatives with different legal and cultural backgrounds from all regions of the world, the Declaration was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris on 10 December 1948 General Assembly resolution 217 A as a common standard of achievements for all peoples and all nations. It sets out, for the first time, fundamental human rights to be universally protected. (Source)
Child Protection Minimum Standards Handbook
In 2010, the members of the global Child Protection Working Group agreed on the need for child protection standards in humanitarian settings. The Minimum Standards for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action (CPMS) were finalized in September 2012. Over 400 individuals from 30 agencies in over 40 countries, including child protection practitioners, humanitarian actors from other sectors, academics and policy makers, were involved in their development. (Source)
Link to the Child Protection Minimum Standards Handbook.
Link to the Child Protection Minimum Standards Handbook.
INEE Minimum Standards Handbook
INEE is an open, global network of practitioners and policy makers working together to ensure all persons the right to quality education and a safe learning environment in emergencies and post-crisis recovery. (Source)
Link to the INEE Minimum Standards Handbook
Link to the INEE Minimum Standards Handbook
IASC Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings
The Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) issues these Guidelines to enable humanitarian actors to plan, establish and coordinate a set of minimum multi-sectoral responses to protect and improve people’s mental health and psychosocial well-being in the midst of an emergency. (Source)
Link to the IASC Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings
Link to the IASC Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings
Promoting the Rights of Children with Disabilities
The UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre in Florence, Italy, was established in 1988 to strengthen the research capability of the United Nations Children’s Fund and to support its advocacy for children worldwide. The Centre (formally known as the International Child Development Centre) helps to identify and research current and future areas of UNICEF’s work. Its prime objectives are to improve international understanding of issues relating to children’s rights and to help facilitate the full implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in developing and industrialized countries. Innocenti Digests are produced by the Centre to provide reliable and accessible information on specific child rights issues. (Source)
Link to Promoting the Rights of Children with Disabilities
Link to Promoting the Rights of Children with Disabilities
The Sphere Handbook
The Sphere Handbook, Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Humanitarian Response, is one of the most widely known and internationally recognized sets of common principles and universal minimum standards in life-saving areas of humanitarian response. (Source)
Link to the Sphere Handbook
Link to the Sphere Handbook
UNHCR Handbook for the Protection of Women and Girls
This Handbook describes some of the protection challenges faced by women and girls of concern to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and outlines various strategies we should adopt with our partners to tackle these challenges. (Source)
Link to the UNHCR Handbook for the Protection of Women and Girls
Link to the UNHCR Handbook for the Protection of Women and Girls
Youth and Conflict Toolkit
The Mercy Corps Conflict Management Group developed a number of tools to help field offices and program teams develop and implement programs that aim to reduce young people’s participation in violence. The tools are largely organized according to the reasons youth participate in violence: Economic Engagement, Political Participation, Youth-to-Community Connections and Youth-to-Youth Connections. (Source)
Link to the Youth and Conflict Toolkit
Link to the Youth and Conflict Toolkit
Integrated Regional Information Networks
Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN) delivers unique, authoritative and independent reporting from the frontlines of crises to inspire and produce a more effective humanitarian response. (Source)
Inter Press Service
Inter Press Service (IPS) is an international communication institution with a global news agency at its core, raising the voices of the South and civil society on issues of development, globalisation, human rights and the environment. (Source)
Thomson Reuters Foundation
The Thomson Reuters Foundation acts to promote socio-economic progress and the rule of law worldwide. (Source)
UN News Center
The UN News Center provides breaking news from the UN News Service. (Source)
Another Kind of Girl Collective
Another Kind of Girl Collective: Only two years into the war, over 3,500 journalists had traveled through Camp Za'atari to tell stories of the Syrian people who were forced out of their country to live in exile in Jordan. The stories told were somewhat black and white and largely tragic. In response to the mainstream media reporting of the refugee experience, two workshops were organized to give Syrian girls living as refugees in Jordan's camps and urban areas cameras and the chance to tell their own stories. (Source)
Because I'm A Girl Campaign
A global initiative of Plan International, Because I am a Girl creates sustainable projects in developing countries to give girls access to the most basic of human rights: clean water, food, health care, education, financial security, and protection from violence and exploitation. These multi-sectoral programs enable girls to realize their own power as they transition into adulthood. (Source)
Brookings Institution
The Brookings Institution is a nonprofit public policy organization based in Washington, DC. Our mission is to conduct in-depth research that leads to new ideas for solving problems facing a society at the local, national and global level. (Source)
ChildFund International
ChildFund exists to help deprived, excluded and vulnerable children have the capacity to improve their lives and the opportunity to become young adults, parents and leaders who bring lasting and positive change in their communities. We promote societies whose individuals and institutions participate in valuing, protecting and advancing the worth and rights of children. (Source)
Child Protection Working Group
The Child Protection Working Group ensures that the efforts of national and international actors to protect children are well coordinated, achieving maximum quality and impact. (Source)
Education for All
The Education for All (EFA) movement is a global commitment to provide quality basic education for all children, youth and adults. At the World Education Forum (Dakar, 2000), 164 governments pledged to achieve EFA and identified six goals to be met by 2015. Governments, development agencies, civil society and the private sector are working together to reach the EFA goals. (Source)
Girl Up
Girls are powerful. When they’re educated, healthy, and safe, they transform their communities. When girls stand up for girls in need, they empower each other and transform our world. As the United Nations Foundation’s adolescent girl campaign, Girl Up engages girls to take action. Led by a community of nearly half a million passionate advocates raising awareness and funds, our efforts help the hardest to reach girls living in places where it is hardest to be a girl. (Source)
Global Campaign for Education
The Global Campaign for Education, U.S. Chapter (GCE-US) is a broad-based coalition of U.S. organizations including non-profit organizations, teachers’ unions, foundations, faith-based groups and think tanks dedicated to ensuring universal access to a quality education. GCE-US is a 501(c)3 organization.
The mission of the Global Campaign for Education-US Chapter is to promote education as a basic human right and mobilize to create political will in the United States and internationally to ensure universal quality education, which is at the core of all human development. (Source)
The mission of the Global Campaign for Education-US Chapter is to promote education as a basic human right and mobilize to create political will in the United States and internationally to ensure universal quality education, which is at the core of all human development. (Source)
Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE)
The Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) is an open, global network of UN agencies, NGOs, donors, governments, universities, schools, and affected populations working together to ensure all persons the right to quality education in emergencies and post-crisis recovery. (Source)
Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre
The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) is the leading source of information and analysis on internal displacement worldwide. Since 1998 its role has been recognised and endorsed by United Nations General Assembly resolutions. (Source)
International Committee of the Red Cross & Red Crescent
The International Committee of the Red Cross is an impartial, neutral and independent organization whose exclusively humanitarian mission is to protect the lives and dignity of victims of armed conflict and other situations of violence and to provide them with assistance. (Source)
International Rescue Committee
The International Rescue Committee responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises, helping to restore health, safety, education, economic wellbeing, and power to people devastated by conflict and disaster. (Source)
Millennium Development Goals
The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – which range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, all by the target date of 2015 – form a blueprint agreed to by all the world’s countries and all the world’s leading development institutions. They have galvanized unprecedented efforts to meet the needs of the world’s poorest. (Source)
Plan International
Founded in 1937, Plan International is a development and humanitarian organisation that advances children’s rights and equality for girls. We strive for a just world, working together with children, young people, our supporters and partners. (Source)
Relief International
Relief International is a nonprofit organization whose sole mission is to reduce human suffering. We respond to natural disasters, humanitarian emergencies and chronic poverty. We are non-sectarian and non-political. (Source)
Save the Children
Save the Children invests in childhood – every day, in times of crisis and for our future. In the United States and around the world, we give children a healthy start, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm. By transforming children's lives now, we change the course of their future and ours. (Source)
Girl Effect
Girl Effect pioneers an integrated brand approach that reframes the value of girls and shapes new social norms that break the cycle of poverty. (Source)
The Sphere Project
The Sphere Project is a voluntary initiative that brings a wide range of humanitarian agencies together around a common aim - to improve the quality of humanitarian assistance and the accountability of humanitarian actors to their constituents, donors and affected populations. (Source)
United Nations Girl's Education Initiative
The United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative (UNGEI) was launched in 2000 by the UN Secretary-General to assist national governments as they fulfill their responsibilities towards ensuring the right to education and gender equality for all children, girls and boys alike. (Source)
United Nations Children's Fund
UNICEF is a leading humanitarian and development agency working globally for the rights of every child. Child rights begin with safe shelter, nutrition, protection from disaster and conflict and traverse the life cycle: pre-natal care for healthy births, clean water and sanitation, health care and education. (Source)
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) works to ensure that everybody has the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge, having fled violence, persecution, war or disaster at home. (Source)
United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is the part of the United Nations Secretariat responsible for bringing together humanitarian actors to ensure a coherent response to emergencies. OCHA also ensures there is a framework within which each actor can contribute to the overall response effort. (Source)
