Home The CentreEvents Symposium: International Humanitarian Law and Access

The proceedings from this event are now available here.

The Centre for Humanitarian Leadership and the Australian Red Cross international humanitarian law program are hosting the international humanitarian law and accesssymposium.

The 2018 ‘State of the Humanitarian System’ report found that humanitarian access is being increasingly constrained by government and non-state armed groups who are not prepared to follow international humanitarian law (IHL). It also found that humanitarians do not fully understand the rules of IHL, and so are not advocating for them.

Recent research by Humanitarian Outcomes found similarly that parties to armed conflicts have not felt sufficient pressure to comply with humanitarian norms, and recommended that humanitarian actors strengthen their skills in negotiating access.

The humanitarian sector has an important role to play in leveraging IHL for better humanitarian access and outcomes in armed conflict. This symposium will respond to the research findings, and will explore best practice for leveraging IHL to promote humanitarian access in conflicts.

This symposium is aimed at humanitarian practitioners, managers, policy/advocacy staff and others in the humanitarian sector interested in leveraging IHL to improve humanitarian outcomes. There will be no charge for the event, but places are limited.

This event is by invitation only. If you are interested in attending please email events@cfhl.org.au.

For questions about the event please contact Rebecca Barber at r.barber@deakin.edu.au or Yvette Zegenhagen at yzegenhagen@redcross.org.au.