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ENSURING SAFETY AND SECURITY OF PERSONNEL IN CSDP MISSIONS AND OPERATIONS: INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE AT SANT’ANNA SCHOOL ON NOVEMBER 16-17

Publication date: 11.11.2017
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The conference on the Duty of Care legal implications and risk management organized by Sant’Anna School will be held in Pisa, from November 16th to 17th. By attending this conference, participants will be able to discuss how to ensure safety and security of employees of international organizations conducting missions in crisis or conflict areas.

Professor Andrea de Guttry, director of Sant’Anna School Dirpolis Institute (Law, Politics, Development), as the supervisor of the research project on “The Duty of Care of International and Regional Organizations towards their Civilian Personnel Sent on Missions”, has been working with the University of Florence and the University of Turin for a collective volume on the conception of a “global Duty of Care”. During the conference, 15 Italian and foreign scholars will present their latest research on security and defence policy. Participants include representatives of international organizations (UNOsceNatoEU) and civilian experts of Think Tank organizations International Sos and Department for International Development - UK.

Security and defence policies for civilian personnel were developed to set up a strategy to allow international organizations to address the risks to the safety of the personnel participating in the missions. Incidents and loss of lives resulting from dangerous activities (two UN experts investigating on reports of abuses were abducted and killed in the Democratic Republic of Congo in March 2017) can have deep consequences if duty of care is not demonstrated to be in place and lead to lawsuits and loss of reputation. This research project supervised by Professor de Guttry aims to offer recommendations to develop a risk management strategy to protect personnel from potential harm and comply with legal obligations on missions and operations. Researchers will explore policy and regulations of eight international organizations (UN, NatoOsceEUAfrican UnionOrganization of American StatesWorld Bank and the European Council) to highlight their responsibilities for action and means for assessing the risks.

“The international community facing civilian personnel casualties and attacks on aid workers is becoming more aware of Duty of Care responsibilities – said Andrea de Guttry – and prevention of employee threats. Nevertheless, the research team of the Sant’Anna School Dirpolis Institute has highlighted that a few studies have examined the current international law framework for regulation of activities which pose a threat to the safety of civilian personnel working for international organizations. These organizations should understand the need for employees training on security and provide additional security protection for their personnel sent on mission to high-risk destinations, together with additional medical information, and insurance information. It is recommended that organizations conducting high risk missions implement Duty of Care best practices; employers must comply with the legal obligation to provide proper training to the staff deployed. Failure to adopt best practices may result in increased liability to organizations and employers.

However, this conference on Duty of Care responsibilities addresses those socially relevant topics for which international organizations community showed a great interest”.

Click here to view the conference agenda.


For any further information, please contact:

Andrea de Guttry (andrea.deguttry@santannapisa.it) or

Chiara Macchi (chiara.macchi@santannapisa.it)