Operational Protection in Camps and Settlements Operational Protection in Camps and Settlements A reference guide of good practices in the protection of refugees and other persons of concern A UNHCR publication, developed in co-operation with the NGO community and with funding from the Ford Foundation. Solutions and Operations Support Section Division of International Protection Services Geneva, Switzerland 2006 Operational Protection in Camps and Settlements A Reference Guide of Good Practices in the Protection of Refugees and Other Persons of Concern Sudan / Internally displaced people / aerial view of Seliah camp, 150 km north of El Geneina. The camp has 10,000 IDPs, most of whom fled their villages between May and August 2003, after attacks from the Janjaweed; others recently came back from refugee camps in Eastern Chad. September 27, 2004. UNHCR / H. Caux The Operational Protection Reference Guide is published in loose-leaf binder format to allow the periodic update and addition of good practices and new guidance. These supplements will be distributed regularly, with new Table of Contents and instructions on addition to the Reference Guide. Limited additional information and documents may be available for some of the good practices herein. NGOs and UNHCR field offices looking to replicate such practices, in ways appropriate to their local context, are encouraged to contact the UNHCR field office or NGO listed in the good practice for further information, including updates and lessons learned that have emerged since publication. UNHCR is always eager to receive additional examples of good practices from NGOs, refugee communities and UNHCR field offices, for possible inclusion in future supplements to the Guide. Proposals of new examples of good practices, preferably in the standardised format presented herein, should be sent to: UNHCR Division of International Protection Services (DIPS) Solutions and Operations Support Section (SOSS) Geneva, Switzerland At email address: [email protected] 3 Table of contents Foreword . .7 I. What is a Protection ‘Good Practice’? . .9 The Four Essential Principles of Good Practice Design and Implementation: - Age, Gender and Diversity Mainstreaming . .14 - A Community-Based Approach, including Participation by Persons of Concern . .16 - Protection Partnerships and Using a Multi-Functional Team Approach . .16 - A Rights-Based Approach, including Accountability to Persons of Concern . .17 Good Practices Cross-Reference Index . .21 II. Specific Protection Issues . .25 The Administration of Justice . .25 Good Practices from the Field . .A1 Camp Security and Maintaining the Civilian and Humanitarian Character of Asylum . .37 Good Practices from the Field . .B1 Freedom of Movement . .49 Good Practices from the Field . .C1 Information Dissemination . .57 Good Practices from the Field . .D1 Protection Monitoring . .65 Good Practices from the Field . .E1 Registration and Documentation of Persons of Concern . .71 Good Practices from the Field . .F1 Sexual- and Gender-Based Violence – Prevention and Response . .79 Good Practices from the Field . .G1 Unaccompanied and Separated Children . .91 Good Practices from the Field . .H1 III. Annexes . .101 A. Agenda for Protection . .101 B. Core Principles for a Code of Conduct . .103 C. High Commissioner’s Five Commitments to Refugee Women . .105 D. Promoting Age, Gender and Diversity Mainstreaming in UNHCR Operations 2005-2007 107 E. Refugee Women and Empowerment Strategy . .111 F. Refugee Children and UNHCR’s Five Priorities for Refugee Children . .115 G. Older Refugees . .119 H. Refugee Participation and the Ethics of a Participatory Approach . .121 I. Rights-Based Approach, including Accountability . .123 J. Field Worker’s Checklist for Programme Effectiveness . .125 K. Minimum Standards for SGBV Programming . .127 L. SGBV Incident Report Form . .131 M. Unaccompanied and Separated Children Registration Form . .135 N. General References . .139 O. Afterword and Acknowledgements . .145 5 Humanitarian workers day after day struggle to protect refugees, asylum-seekers, internally displaced persons and returnees under the most extreme of circumstances. Poor security in refugee camps, sexual and gender-based violence and the recruitment of child soldiers are some of the many problems that confront humanitarian work in an ever more difficult environment. What is needed, more than ever before, are operational tools, strengthened partnerships and innovative community-based responses. This Operational Protection Reference Guide provides a ‘How To’ of protection, implemented with the active and meaningful participation of the refugee communities. This Reference Guide is an effort to address the difficulties of translating policy into practice and the obstacles to operationalize existing guidelines. It brings together a range of guidelines and policies into easily accessible segments, documents implementation challenges and then provides real-life examples of good practices where UNHCR and NGO field operations – most successfully when in partnership – have managed these challenges through creative and effective programmes. This Reference Guide is also designed to be used in conjunction with two other publications developed in a process of close co-operation amongst UNHCR and NGOs, the Camp Management Toolkit and the Protecting Refugees: A Field Guide for NGOs. UNHCR is both mandated and tasked with a responsibility to protect, regardless of the changing environment and evolving complexities. UNHCR cannot meet this challenge without the benefit of partnerships with NGOs, donors, officials of the country of asylum and, most significant of all, the refugees themselves. This Guide represents another step in the process of enhancing the protection of refugees and other persons of concern. Although primarily a compendium of practices undertaken to protect refugees, many of the experiences and ideas will be beneficial in protecting the larger community of persons of concern, notably asylum-seekers, internally displaced persons and returnees. Similarly, although the Reference Guide focuses on past practice in the context of refugee camps and settlements, many of the concepts herein can prove beneficial to persons of concern in urban centres or dispersed in local host communities. This Guide cannot provide all the answers. As time passes, some of the practices included here may prove to be most constructive in the lessons they illustrate of challenges unmet and dilemmas unresolved. The Guide should, though, help put policy into practice in a more consistent, coherent and effective way. UNHCR’s Division of International Protection Services in partnership with the Division of Operational Support and with the engagement of Emergency and Security Service are pleased to be a part of this UNHCR/NGO collaborative effort made possible through the support of the Ford Foundation. Erika Feller Arnauld Akodjenou Director, Director, Division of International Protection Services Division of Operational Support 15 December 2005 15 December 2005 7 Good Practices: The essential principles of design and implementation Sudan / IDPs from Darfur region / UNHCR Protection Officer (left) and another UNHCR staff member listen to the concerns of displaced men about the shelter area they have been allocated / UNHCR / K. McKinsey / April 2005 Good Practice: A ‘good practice’ is an intervention that addresses, in accordance with prevailing policy or guidelines, a specific protection issue, problem or challenge, resulting in better protection for persons of concern. Ideally, a good practice incorporates the four essential principles of protection (and programme) design and implementation: • Age, gender and diversity mainstreaming; • Community-based approach, including refugee participation; •Protection partnerships, including a multi-functional team approach; and •A rights-based approach; to improve protection for a variety of persons of concern and address numerous specific protection concerns simultaneously. The ‘best’ good practices thus cross-reference and cross- support other protection good practices in a comprehensive fashion. More than forty ‘good practices’ are included in this Guide, drawn from some twenty-three different country operations. The good practices included are not exhaustive and certainly not perfect. They may address a part of the problem but not be comprehensive in scope. They likely present the best achievable solution to an issue in a difficult working environment. It is also important to realise that a good practice included in this Guide may, by the time of publication, have encountered unforeseen implementation difficulties or dramatic changes in the physical environment due to armed conflict or political stability. A ‘good practice’ may, in the long run, later prove to exacerbate or create other protection problems. Where apparent, certain potential weaknesses or trouble spots have been noted under the ‘For Further Consideration’ heading in the good practice sheets. The loose-leaf format of this Guide will allow for future update, modification or later removal of individual good practices depending on the lessons learned during sustained implementation. Each good practice included in this Guide today nevertheless provides valuable ideas to improve the delivery and attainment of protection, and provide concepts that initially have proven successful in real-life settings. These experiences – positive and negative – can help protection actors in other countries to better design their own protection interventions. 11 ‘Refugees’ and ‘Persons of Concern’ The text of this Guide alternatively refers to ‘refugees’ and ‘persons of concern’. At times, the references appear to alternate without distinction. In fact, they do not. Most of the good practices included in this Guide were designed and implemented for the improved protection of refugees, historically the core mandate of UNHCR and the focus of many NGOs in their field operations. The good practices illustrated in this Guide, as well as many of.