The Signal Code: A Human Rights Approach to Information During Crisis

In the past decade, humanitarian actors and affected populations alike have integrated advances in information communication technologies (ICTs) and the digital data they produce into humanitarian responses to crises. These crises include natural disasters, armed conflict, other forms of complex emergencies, and political unrest. This adoption and absorption of ICTs and digital data by a diverse ecosystem of actors not only profoundly affects how humanitarian action now occurs, but also fundamentally transforms the very ways that crises unfold in the 21st century and the impacts that these crises have on populations.

However, these operational and technological changes are occurring without an accepted rights-based approach (RBA) for conducting humanitarian information activities (HIAs) in the present era. The authors of this document believe that creating this rights-based approach is essential.