Safeguarding in conflict and crisis

Robust, comprehensive safeguarding measures, including those used in crisis- and conflict-affected contexts, need to take appropriate account of local contexts in order to adhere to the highest international standards, including in safeguarding children.
The four KCS standards
- Policy: The organisation sets out a clear policy that describes how it is committed to promoting the well-being of children, preventing abuse and creating a positive environment for children in which their rights are upheld and they are treated with dignity and respect.
- People: The organisation communicates clearly its commitments to keeping children safe and the responsibilities and expectations it places on staff, associate personnel and partners, through relevant policies, procedures and guidance. It is crucial that all relevant actors, including children themselves, are supported in understanding and acting in line with those responsibilities and expectations.
- Procedures: The organisation implements a systematic process of planning and implementing child safeguarding measures.
- Accountability: The organisation has measures and mechanisms in place for monitoring and reviewing safeguarding measures and to ensure both upward and downward accountability.
Implementing the standards
- Where, when and how does the organisation come into contact with children and what risks does this present?
- What policies and procedures are needed to prevent harm and to respond to concerns appropriately?
- Who is the appropriate designated person/s to act as the focal point to receive and manage any safeguarding concerns and to handle subsequent investigation?
- What safeguarding induction and training are needed to ensure staff know what the organisation expects of them and what to do if they have a concern?
- Is there a clear code of conduct so that all staff understand their professional boundaries when working with children and what is and is not acceptable behaviour?
- How can we recruit safely?
When fully implemented, child safeguarding measures offer a set of practical tools for tackling a culture of impunity around child abuse. Children are safer because, when the Standards are properly implemented, every individual within an organisation receives clear instructions on their obligation to act to prevent and report abuse and the sanctions they will face if they fail to comply. The existence and implementation of the Standards act as a powerful deterrent to abusers before they even apply for a job, and they ensure that organisations in positions of trust are held to account.
Conflict and crisis zones
A key problem within conflict and crisis settings is that laws, policies and practices operate at different scale, including at the international, regional and local levels.[2] This means that humanitarian organisations operating in these contexts require knowledge and understanding of the (often overlapping or, indeed, contradictory) range of laws, policies and contexts that apply. This is particularly difficult when organisations have to enter an emergency setting quickly, or when rule of law has broken down.
Working with donors
Keeping Children Safe and the University of Reading have also adapted for the aid sector our approach for peacekeeping in order to support funders in assessing humanitarian organisations’ safeguarding measures (which include adults at risk of harm as well as children) and make recommendations to address any gaps. In one such project, working with the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), formerly known as DFID, the project team designed an assessment framework and conducted initial assessments of some of the largest UK-funded non-governmental organisations, and worked with them to identify areas of strength and weakness across the six main areas of FCDO’s safeguarding standards: safeguarding, whistleblowing, human resources, risk management, code of conduct, and governance and accountability.
Download
Donload the full Safeguarding in conflict and crisis report (pdf).
References
[1] https://www.keepingchildrensafe.global/capacity-building/ [2] See Freedman R (2018) ‘UNaccountable: A New Approach to Peacekeepers and Sexual Abuse’ European Journal of International Law, 29 (3), 961–985 https://doi.org/10.1093/ejil/chy039 [3] For more information and resources see: https://research.reading.ac.uk/safeguarding-children/ Photo: An aerial view of the world’s largest refugee camp, Dadaab. Credit: Andy Hall/Oxfam. Source: flickr Article originally published at: https://www.fmreview.org/ethics/blakemore-freedman
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