What are the humanitarian consequences of urban warfare, and how can international humanitarian law (IHL) reduce them? The conversation continues with ICRC advisors Caroline Baudot, Stephen Kilpatrick and Abby Zeith. Hosted by Elizabeth Rushing.
What are the humanitarian consequences of urban warfare, and how can IHL reduce them? A conversation with Cordula Droege, ICRC's Chief Legal Officer. Hosted by Elizabeth Rushing.
COVID has turned our world upside down and amplified challenges on a global scale. Issues like the spread of disinformation and the role of behavioral change to create real impact in humanitarian situations were significant before the pandemic but in today’s reality, they have become nothing short of critical. In this episode of the podcast, we have several guests to discuss the role and influence of information and community engagement in instilling tangible behavioral change in humanitarian se...
This week, Intercross the Podcast has a special Audio Diary from Yemen. It features Tobias Ehret, ICRC’s Field Team Leader, and Samar Al-Aghbari, ICRC’s Protection Field Officer as they travel from Aden to the Ad Durayhimi district, a remote area very close to the frontlines for a distribution. The trip took some ten days, and their diaries give insight into the intense work and collaboration needed in providing humanitarian aid in a time of COVID.
With over 24 million in need of aid and only half of its health facilities functioning, Yemen is the world's single largest humanitarian crisis. In this episode of the podcast, we sit down with Franz Rauchenstein, the outgoing head of ICRC in Sana’a. He has served in South Sudan, Afghanistan and the DRC over the course of his 25 years with the organization but recently called Yemen ‘the worst crisis he had ever seen.’ We discuss the devastating impact of COVID, why adhering to a ceasefire has be...
What is acceptable and what is prohibited in armed conflict? The four Geneva Conventions of 1949 form the foundation of international humanitarian law and provide a framework setting out the answers to that question. In the 1950s, the ICRC published a set of commentaries on these Conventions, giving practical guidance on their implementation. But to reflect the developments in law and practice since then, the ICRC commissioned a new set of commentaries that seek to reflect the current interpreta...
During armed conflicts, other situations of violence, natural disasters, or migration, countless people go missing, causing great anguish for their families and loved ones, who often make desperate attempts to find them. Waiting to learn about a missing person’s fate and whereabouts means living in limbo, between hope and despair, facing the pain of ongoing uncertainty and unable to grieve. Such uncertainty has severe psychological and emotional effects. It can also create legal, administrative,...
To mark World Humanitarian Day, in this episode podcast we have Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, Richard Albright. Within the US State Department, he’s responsible for humanitarian policy, advocacy and assistance programs, and directing nearly $2 billion US dollars for humanitarian response. The ICRC works with a lot of donors as a neutral and independent humanitarian organization which includes the United States through PRM. Mr. Albright ...
More than 700,000 people have died from COVID worldwide—and that number goes up every day. Accompanying these deaths is grief, but the normal methods of mourning are often not available to family and loved ones. Memorials are held virtually, often those dying do so with only health care workers by their side. People are experiencing grief in different ways, many of which are unique to this moment in history. To discuss dealing with grief in a time of COVID, on this episode of the podcast we have...
This year marks the 60th birthday of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. For the last 25+ years, the country has been embroiled in conflict due to the massive refugee crisis and spillover from the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. The armed conflict and violence in the DRC has affected thousands of families and created a deteriorating humanitarian situation. Brutal clashes between groups has had very serious consequences for people: many have been killed, wounded, or traumatized, villages have been bur...
In conflict and post-conflict contexts, access to assistance and protection is constantly contested, particularly for vulnerable populations such as the internally displaced. With the additional challenge of COVID19, this access is even more complicated, challenging the ability of humanitarian actors and creating second effects for those fleeing. In this episode of the podcast, a follow-up conversation from a recent Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) and ICRC webinar, we are joined by NRC’s Central...
Mali sits in the middle of West Africa, with most of the country situated within in the Sahel desert. It is a key operation for the ICRC, where we’ve worked since 1982 and held a delegation since 2013—falling typically within the top 15 largest global operations budget-wise, and top 5 in Africa. Since 2012, the country has experienced escalated conflict and a resulting dire humanitarian situation. In this episode of the podcast, we are joined by Jean Nicolas Marti, the outgoing head of delegatio...
To say that COVID19 has had global reaching impacts is an understatement. But for those living in Syria, the pandemic reaches the country at a time when ten years of destructive conflict has led to mass population displacement, and a once strong health system is in a precarious state. Half of all health facilities are now out of service or partially functioning. The country has experienced an economic decline as a consequence of the conflict, sanctions, and a regional downturn generating further...
Each year, armed conflict disrupts millions of lives. It also disrupts the infrastructure that makes daily life possible, such as damage to water supplies. The protracted conflict in Libya, now going on 9+ years, has made clean water a luxury for many. Close to 70 % of the Libyan population depends on the Man Made River, a gigantic water supply pipeline that draws water from the aquifers in the south of the country and brings it up north. Even before the added complexity of COVID, the tasks at h...
International Nurses Day is celebrated around the world every May 12, the anniversary of Florence Nightingale's birth. In non-global epidemic times, nurses and medical workers make up the backbone of our country’s health care system. But particularly in this age, their role has been nothing short of critical. In this episode of the podcast, we have Linda MacIntyre, the chief nurse of the American Red Cross. She heads up a network of some 16,000+ nurses and other health professionals, both volunt...
By 2030, it is estimated that up to two-thirds of the world’s extreme poor will live in countries characterized by fragility, conflict, and violence. The global fragility landscape has worsened significantly: There are now more violent conflicts globally than at any time in the past 30 years, and the world is also facing the largest forced displacement crisis ever recorded. As these numbers increase, addressing them becomes even more mission-critical for the World Bank Group, which has been supp...
More than 175,000 people in the United States have recovered from COVID19. Once a person recovers, his or her blood contains antibodies in its plasma that can possibly fight the virus. Those antibodies can be obtained from a donor’s blood and given to a severely ill patient via transfusion. The hope is that these antibodies can help patients recover. The use of convalescent plasma—or plasma extracted from those recovering from a certain illness—has a long history, dating back even to the Spanish...
The Coronavirus is having an impact on absolutely every element of our lives. For people living in war-zones, the virus is just one more threat when you’re already dealing with so much suffering. Faced with immediate threats to life, such as gunfire, shelling and bombings, and lack of life-saving health care, it’s a real challenge to prioritize how you’re going to deal with it all. So with this episode, we are starting a new series of shorts that hear from different ICRC delegations and focus on...
In this episode of Intercross the Podcast, we discuss Lake Chad. Situated in north-west Africa, what is known as the Lake Chad region – Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon, Chad – has been ripped apart by conflict. Civilians are regular subject to direct and/or indiscriminate attacks, including bombings in populated areas, as well as sexual violence, forced recruitment, and abductions. Over 2.4 million people have been forced to flee their homes, while millions more are in need of food, water, shelter and ...
In this episode of Intercross the Podcast, we sit down with Massimo Marelli, Head of Data Protection Office for the ICRC. Massimo discusses how the ICRC approaches data protection and why this is a vital aspect of the ICRC’s humanitarian action in an increasingly digitally-connected world. He provides an overview of the ICRC’s data protection policies, such as the ICRC Rules on Personal Data Protection and the ICRC Policy on the Processing of Biometric Data, and highlights how the ICRC developed...
After a couple of months break, Intercross the Podcast is back. And we are returning with quite a compelling conversation. Our guest, Esperanza Martinez, ICRC’s head of health, first spoke with us back in November 2017. She joined the ICRC in 2001, then worked for other organizations (UN and donor agencies as well as the private sector) before undertaking her current role in the ICRC’s headquarters in Geneva in 2015. She is a medical doctor and general surgeon trained in Colombia, specialized in...
From December 4-12 2019, the Statutory Meetings of the Red Cross and Red Crescent will bring together Red Cross and Red Crescent leaders from virtually every country in the world, as well as the International Federation, and the ICRC. Collectively known as the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, it is the world’s largest and oldest humanitarian network, consisting of 192 National Societies, more than one million members and 14 million volunteers worldwide. Also joining the meeting...
December 3rd is the International Day of People with Disabilities. Celebrated globally since 1992, this year’s theme is "The Future is Accessible," meaning that we must all, together, look towards a future where the barriers which stand in people’s way no longer exist. According to the World Bank, one billion people, or 15% of the world's population, experience some form of disability, and disability prevalence is higher for developing countries. One-fifth of the estimated global total, or betwe...
Since September 1, the ongoing fighting between armed groups has forced large numbers of people in Birao, in the north-east of the Central African Republic, to flee their homes. More than 25,000 people – almost the entire population of the town – were forced to flee empty-handed in a matter of hours to makeshift camps, leaving behind homes that have either been ransacked or burnt down. In addition to conflict it faces, the Central African Republic is identified as the most at-risk country in ter...
With armed conflicts taking place in so many parts of the Muslim world, the Islamic law of war is as indispensable as ever for the protection of civilians and others. Over the centuries, classical Muslim jurists have provided impressive legal literature, which, just as international humanitarian law (IHL), brings humanity in war. Emphasizing the universality of IHL’s principles, which transcend legal traditions, civilizations, and cultures, is absolutely essential for improving respect and prote...
The war in Syria has lasted more than eight years and has led to massive destruction and loss of life. The human cost of this conflict is widely considered, in fact, without historical precedent among civil wars. Increasingly, there is doubt that the conflict will reach a resolution or political settlement anytime in the near future, resulting in a growing fatigue and frustration across the international community. This frustration has triggered an appetite among States, civil society and the in...
On this episode of Intercross the Podcast, we are joined by Julie Arrighi, the Urban Manager and ICRC Partnership Lead at the Red Cross/Red Crescent Climate Centre. This year, the ICRC, the Red Cross/Red Crescent Climate Centre, and the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) are hosting a global policy roundtable series on “Climate Risk, Conflict, and Resilience,” with the objectives of better understanding the intersection of climate and conflict risk, examining the implications for humanitarian ...
In this episode of the Podcast, we speak with Kate Spradley, a biological anthropologist and professor with the Forensic Anthropology Center at the University of Texas. In 2013, she founded Operation Identification, a service-learning project that seeks to restore identities to the remains of migrants recovered from the Rio Grande Valley region. We talk about her work, the barriers to identifying migrant remains, and the crossover with ICRC’s work with the missing. Hosted by Niki Clark and Will ...
Whether within or across borders, the displacement of persons remains a pressing humanitarian concern. Millions of people are separated from their homes, livelihoods and families each year by armed conflict or other catastrophes, and frequently suffer severe abuses and hardship while in flight or at their place of refuge. ICRC recently released a study called Displacement in Times of Armed Conflict: How International Humanitarian Law Protects in War and Why it Matters. In this episode of the pod...
Eight years of violence and armed conflict have taken a heavy toll on Libya. Its economy is in crisis, instability prevails, and basic services such as health care, schools, electricity and water are suffering. In Tripoli, the latest conflict continues with no end in sight over three months after it began. There are growing fears that a protracted urban battle lies ahead. Meanwhile, tens of thousands remain displaced in other parts of the country. In this episode, we speak with Mohamed Sheikh-Al...
