The Sphere Project - Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Humanitarian Response - Protection Principles

Protection is concerned with the safety, dignity and rights of people affected by disaster or armed conflict. The Humanitarian Charter summarises some of the most fundamental rights involved in humanitarian response. This chapter is concerned with the way these rights should inform humanitarian practice from a protection perspective and, specifically, the way agencies can avoid exposing the affected population to further harm and how they can help people to achieve greater safety and security.

Core humanitarian protection concerns in this context are freedom from violence and from coercion of various kinds and freedom from deliberate deprivation of the means of survival with dignity.

These concerns give rise to four basic Protection Principles that inform all humanitarian action:

1. Avoid exposing people to further harm as a result of your actions
2. Ensure people’s access to impartial assistance – in proportion to need
and without discrimination
3. Protect people from physical and psychological harm arising from
violence and coercion
4. Assist people to claim their rights, access available remedies and recover
from the effects of abuse.