Humanitarian protection

Humanitarian protection is the act of promoting and ensuring the legal rights of people affected by humanitarian crises.

The concept of humanitarian protection was established by the 1949 Geneva Conventions and responsibility to ensure protection was mandated to the International Committee of the Red Cross. Outside of times of crises, national governments tend to have responsibility to ensure that people's rights are protected, but during humanitarian emergencies aid agencies often perform the task. Humanitarian protection by non-governmental agencies is coordinated by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

A growing unmet need for humanitarian protection was identified in 2015, exacerbated by a major gap in donor-funding of humanitarian protection activities.