Core Humanitarian Standard on Quality and Accountability

Every day all over the world, countless people from all walks of life are moved to act in
response to the humanitarian imperative – the desire to prevent and alleviate human
suffering wherever it happens.
The Core Humanitarian Standard on Quality and Accountability (CHS) sets out Nine
Commitments that organisations and individuals involved in humanitarian response
can use to improve the quality and effectiveness of the assistance they provide. It also
facilitates greater accountability to communities and people affected by crisis: knowing
what humanitarian organisations have committed to will enable them to hold those
organisations to account.
The CHS places communities and people affected by crisis at the centre of humanitarian
action and promotes respect for their fundamental human rights. It is underpinned
by the right to life with dignity, and the right to protection and security as set forth in
international law, including within the International Bill of Human Rights.2
As a core standard, the CHS describes the essential elements of principled, accountable
and high-quality humanitarian action. Humanitarian organisations may use it as a voluntary
code with which to align their own internal procedures. It can also be used as a basis for
verification of performance, for which a specific framework and associated indicators have
been developed to ensure relevance to different contexts and types of organisation.