Full Description
This book is the product of a collaboration between the data protection offices of the ICRC and UNHCR, alongside the Global Privacy Assembly, to reflect on a decade of progress in data protection in humanitarian contexts. Through practitioner perspectives, empirical research, and conceptual reflections, it examines how data protection underpins trust, accountability, and respect for affected populations, serving as a crucial enabler for ethical and effective humanitarian action in the digital age.
The volume explores critical topics including digital transformation, operational complexities such as those linked to data breaches and data sharing, regulatory developments and international cooperation, legal frameworks and capacity-building. At the same time, it looks ahead, addressing the challenges and opportunities posed by emerging technologies and considering how the humanitarian sector may anticipate and prepare for them.
This book is intended for policymakers, practitioners, authorities, academics and other experts working in data protection, international organizations, and humanitarian action and adjacent fields. It offers a compass to help navigate complex operational and legal challenges in an increasingly digital and data-driven landscape. By positioning data protection as a foundational element of humanitarian action, the book provides timely, forward-looking insights into the sector's preparedness for technological and regulatory change, with the aim of helping those most in need.
Contents
Foreword (Wojciech Wiewiórowski). Introduction: Data Protection in Humanitarian Action: Responding to Crises in a Data-Driven World (Ana Beduschi, Massimo Marelli and Aaron Martin) Section 1: Setting the Scene 1. The Contribution of Data Protection to Humanitarian Action: 10 Years of Data Protection in Humanitarian Action (Massimo Marelli) Section 2: Humanitarian Action in the Digital Age Section 2.1 An Evolving Humanitarian Space 2. From Disconnected to Connected: How 10 Years of Increasing Connectivity for Crisis-Affected Communities Has Increased the Importance of Personal Data Protection (Betty (Jia Li) Wang and John Warnes) 3. The Challenges of Building RedSafe, a Secure Digital Humanitarian Platform: An Unsafe Journey? (Romain Bircher) 4. The Logic of Biometrics and Organisational Accountability (Quito Tsui) Section 2.2 Understanding the Digital Transformation of the Humanitarian Space through Data Protectionb5. Digital Transformation and the Humanitarian-Development Transition: The Role of Digital Public Infrastructure and Data Protection (Emrys Schoemaker and Aaron Martin) 6. Data Protection and Independence in an Age of Hyperconnectivity (Martin Searle) 7. Data Protection as a Foundational Pillar and Key Enabler of Trusted Digital Transformation (Charlotte Lindsey Curtet) Section 3: Data Protection at the Crossroads Section 3.1 Evolution of Data Protection and Humanitarian Action in International Law and Diplomacy 8. Data Protection Regulation and International Humanitarian Organisations: Revisiting the Origins, Nature and Significance of the UN Guidelines on Personal Data Regulation (1990) (David Erdos) 9. Legal Tensions: Insights from UN-EU Correspondence on EU Data Protection Law and the Role of Privileges and Immunities in Enhancing Personal Data Protection (Christina Vasala Kokkinaki) 10. The Council of Europe Convention for the Protection of Individuals with Regard to the Processing of Personal Data (Convention 108+) and International Organisations (Jean-Philippe Walter and Sophie Kwasny) 11. Data Protection, Humanitarian Action, and Global Regulatory Cooperation: The Role of the Global Privacy Assembly (Catherine Lennman and Florence Dubosc) Section 3.2 Data Protection Law in Humanitarian Practice 12. Data Protection in the Framework of Restoring Family Links Humanitarian Activities: Code of Conduct and Resolutions (Emily Knox) 13. By the Book, Beyond, and Backwards? Ethical Considerations on the 2022 Data Breach Affecting the Family Links Network of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement (Natalie Klein-Kelly) 14. Growing Data Protection Maturity in Humanitarian Action: Changes in the Understanding of Key Concepts (Dogu Han Buyukyagcioglu) 15. Data Sharing Between Humanitarian Organisations and Donors: Accountability, Transparency, and Data Protection in Principled Humanitarian Action (Larissa Fast, Stuart Campo and Gilles Cerutti) Section 4: Regional and Local Perspectives on Data Protection 16. "Withdraw Your Data": How Data Protection Legislation Can Reshape Humanitarian Action (Timothy Charlton-Czaplicki and Cassie Jiun Seo) 17. Context Matters: Towards a Framework for Understanding Perceptions of Data Protection in Humanitarian Aid (Timothy Charlton-Czaplicki, Julia Feigen, and Silvia Pelucchi) 18. Data Protection and the Asia-Pacific Region: Zooming into Humanitarian Action (Hiroshi Miyashita) Section 5: Building Capacity and Addressing Challenges Ahead 19. Teaching Data Protection as Trust-Building (Cosimo Monda and Cristina Teleki) 20. Data Protection in the Times of Artificial Intelligence: Towards a Digital Humanism (Wojciech Wiewiórowski (with contributions from Olivier Matter and Michèle Dubrocard)
