© European Union (photographer: Anouk Delafortrie) Last updated: 10/02/2022

European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations

Protection
What is it?
Ensuring the protection of populations is a core objective of humanitarian action. Protection is a broad concept,
approached in many ways, ranging from delivering basic humanitarian assistance to deploying peacekeeping
troops.
The European Commission defines humanitarian protection as addressing violence, coercion, deliberate
deprivation and abuse for persons, groups, and communities in humanitarian crises. This is performed complying
with humanitarian principles and within international law.
International law defines the global framework for protecting populations: it includes international human rights
law, international humanitarian law and international refugee law. This framework define the obligations of states
and warring parties to assist and protect civilians, and to prevent and refrain from behaviour that violates their
rights.
Why is this important?
In humanitarian crises, people need material assistance such as food, water, medical assistance, and
psychological support. However, in situations of violence or deprivation, they also need specific support to cover
the broader issues of personal safety and dignity.
EU-funded protection interventions aim to prevent, reduce, and respond to the risks and consequences of violence,
coercion, deliberate deprivation and abuse in humanitarian crises.
How are we helping?
Protection is embedded in our mandate as defined by the European Council's Humanitarian Regulation (1996) and
confirmed by the European Consensus on Humanitarian Aid (2007).
In May 2016, we published the staff working document ‘Humanitarian Protection: Improving protection outcomes
to reduce risks for people in humanitarian crises’. It outlines the definition and objectives of the European
Commission’s humanitarian protection work.
The staff working document provides guidance for (i) the analysis of protection risks, (ii) programming of
protection work in humanitarian crises, (iii) measuring the effect and outcome of interventions, and (iv) capacity-
building activities.

Civil Protection &

Humanitarian Aid
Humanitarian protection is both a sector and cross-cutting issue. We use 2 main approaches:
• targeted protection actions: such as (i) helping people obtain documentation or legal status; (ii) preventing
and responding to violence, including gender-based violence; (iii) child protection; (iv) mine action
• protection mainstreaming: incorporating protection principles and promoting meaningful access, safety,
dignity, accountability, participation and empowerment for all social groups in all humanitarian projects,
regardless of the sector.

EU-funded protection initiatives

The EU allocated over €1 billion for protection actions from 2017-2021. These are some examples.

Ukraine
We help provide legal counselling and aid to the population living close to the contact line or in non-government-
controlled areas. This helps them get access, for example, to pensions, birth and death certificates, disability
certificates, and security of tenure. Also, immobile older people and persons with disabilities living close to the
contact line are provided with home-based care and psychosocial support.

Great Lakes
In the Great Lakes region,especially in Eastern Congo, over 5 million people have been internally displaced due to
the armed conflict.
In this type of context, protection interventions aim to disseminate and promote compliance with international
humanitarian law and international human rights law among weapons bearers, communities and authorities. The
aim is to improve or restore humanitarian access and a protective environment for civilians affected by the
conflict.
Activities also focus on protection monitoring to follow new displacements and patterns of abuse/violations,
comprehensive protection services to victims of violence, including gender-based violence, and child protection.
Key interventions include promoting meaningful access to safety and security, medical/mental health and
psychosocial services, legal assistance, and cash-based interventions for reintegration.

Somalia
A country-wide protection monitoring system enhances the systematic and regular collection and analysis of
information. The system identifies trends and patterns of violation of rights and protection risks for affected
communities.
This has the purpose of informing effective programming and advocacy. The monitoring is done through
structured monthly interviews with the same set of key informants, representing a variety of profiles considering
age, gender, disability, displacement status, role in the community and social background.
This allows to analyse and compare protection trends over time, identify patterns of violations, understand
vulnerabilities of different groups to specific violations, identify coping strategies, as well as connectors and
dividers.

Colombia
Protecting the human safety, integrity and dignity of the vulnerable populations affected by the conflict is a
priority. Through stand-alone or integrated actions, the protection assistance aims to reduce the increasing risks
and directly provide a holistic response to victims of violence, abuse, exploitation and confinement.
This encompasses case management, legal assistance for forcibly displaced people, holistic support to gender-
based violence survivors, appropriate response to unaccompanied and separated children, psychosocial support,
promotion of international humanitarian law, mine risk education, protection monitoring, evidence-based
advocacy, and the implementation of coordinated protection early alert and identification systems.
Facts & figures
Humanitarian protection aims to prevent, reduce, and respond to the risks and consequences of violence,
deprivation, and abuse in humanitarian settings.
In 2021, over 113 million persons required protection due to humanitarian crises.
The EU allocated over €1 billion for targeted protection actions from 2017-2021.
In 2021, more than 22 million people benefited from EU-funded protection actions.

European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations - B-1049 Brussels, Belgium - E-mail: echo-info@ec.europa.eu
Website: https://civil-protection-humanitarian-aid.ec.europa.eu Facebook: @ec.humanitarian.aid Twitter: @eu_echo Instagram: @eu_echo