Institute of International
Humanitarian Affairs
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LETTER FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
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This issue of
The Humanitarian Newsletter marks the last one under the steady and loving hand of
Kasia Laskowski (IDHA 40), who is leaving the Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs in early November.
Kasia began her career with the IIHA as part of the international team, working, under the direction of Larry Hollingworth, on our humanitarian training programs held throughout the world. Needing new challenges, although not so secretly mourning her life on the road, she returned to New York to oversee social media and alumni relations for the IIHA and the CIHC. She was, when I met her, six years ago, as is she is now - careful, compassionate, humble, flexible, imaginative, and almost ruthlessly efficient - a perfectionist at her work, an old soul providing wise counsel, spiritual direction, and, to many of the IDHA diaspora, even a couch to sleep on in her New York City apartment. Hundreds of students, lecturers, and interns will remember her exacting standards, her energy, and her sensitivity to all.
We constantly speak about family in the IDHA and in our graduate and undergraduate courses and there is no better example of this than Kasia. Our Institute grew with her as an integral part of the team and it will grow further because of the hard work she put in to making it central to Fordham's mission, sharing its news, and the news of so many other academic programs throughout the world. Possessing an almost perfect laugh, the kind of laugh that changes the atmosphere in a room, she will be missed by so many, not least by me. I always knew this day would come, but it makes it no less easy as it approaches.
On behalf of everyone at the IIHA, I wish Kasia fair skies and following seas and look forward to working with her in the next stage of her career.
Brendan Cahill (IDHA 9)
Executive Director, IIHA
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FORDHAM AND THE IIHA FORMALIZE PARTNERSHIP WITH IOM!
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Fordham University
and the
Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs (IIHA)
are proud to announce our partnership with the
International Organization for Migration (IOM)
, which was formalized by the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between Fordham University President Joseph M. McShane, S.J. and IOM Director General Ambassador William Lacy Swing at Fordham University's Lincoln Center Campus in New York. The agreement between the two organizations was led and negotiated by IIHA Executive Director, Brendan Cahill (IDHA 9), who emphasized the importance of the partnership for training, research, and publications. We extend our sincere thanks to CIHC Board Member and IDHA Alumni Council Chairperson Emeritus, Argentina Szabados (IDHA 2), who, in her roles as IOM Regional Director for South-Eastern Europe, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia and Special Representative to IOM Director General, has been an absolutely integral part of the process.
Read the article in Fordham News!
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CIHC & IIHA TEAM ON SYRIA
AND THE REFUGEE CRISIS
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In a
recent article for
The Guardian,
"Peace in Syria is possible. Here's how it can be achieved,"
CIHC Board Member Lord David Owen emphasizes that in the case of the Syrian conflict, the "
humanitarian imperative is for the region to act and the world to help." The
ongoing conflict in Syria continues to force people out of their homes and across borders into cities and refugee camps.
In an editorial for the BMJ
, IIHA Helen Hamlyn Senior Fellow, Alexander van Tulleken, M.D. (IDHA 16), turns the focus to the current refugee crisis and explores
how the crisis presents a paradox to healthcare providers: "Our efforts will always exacerbate the problem of 'the camp': the better the services are in a camp, the more people it attracts, reducing the pressure on other states to accept refugees for longer term resettlement." He suggests healthcare workers find the balance between meeting immediate medical needs, while resisting becoming the mechanism by which the mass containment of people is justified.
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HUMANITARIANISM & ACADEMIA
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Call for Papers/ Proposals
Submission Deadline: Friday, November 11, 2016
Submission Deadline: Monday, April 13, 2017
Noteworthy Articles, Reports, & Resources
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Vincent Kenny and Fausto Aarya De Santis, both graduates of IDHA 44 who also joined the team as IDHA tutors, recently reunited in Dublin, Ireland!
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IDHA alumni Dr. Durgavasini Devanath (IDHA 31) of the IFRC Asia Pacific Regional Office and Leo Pattiasina (IDHA 35) of Palang Merah Indonesia (PMI) recently met as their organizations joined together to organize and facilitate a Community Based Psychosocial Support Training in Penang, Malaysia.
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"Wonderful meeting my IDHA 44 friend James Tan in Kathmandu. Remembered you all my fellow IDHA 44 mates and missing those lovely days in Geneva in 2015. Hope to catch you all one day. James is doing such a great humanitarian job for the Nepal earthquake victims in Dhading and Sindhupalchowk districts. Very much appreciated his efforts for the people in Nepal." - Mukesh Singh (IDHA 44)
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UPCOMING IIHA TRAINING COURSES
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February 5 - March 3
Kathmandu, Nepal
March 20 - March 24
Barcelona, Spain
March 27 - March 31
Barcelona, Spain
April 3 - April 7
Barcelona, Spain
April 10 - April 14
Barcelona, Spain
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JOB/INTERNSHIP OPPORTUNITIES
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The
Jesuit Universities Humanitarian Action Network (JUHAN)
, of which Fordham is a Founding Member, will be holding its 5th Bi-annual Student Leadership Conference: "Principles in Crisis: Refugees and Responsibility" from June 27 - 29, 2017. JUHAN
invites research paper, advocacy, and panel discussion proposals
on topics substantively related to humanitarian relief, and especially welcomes proposals on subjects addressing this year's theme. Proposals can be submitted
via the website
through February 28, 2017. Registration for students, faculty/staff, and community members who wish to attend the conference will also begin the same day. For additional details and contact information, please view
the flyer
or visit the
conference website
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Autumn is ripe with opportunities and news for the humanitarian innovation world! This October, IIHA Innovation and HTH attended the European Maker Faire event in Rome, where makers, innovators, and social changers from all over the Old Continent met to show their best projects. It was an excellent opportunity to meet with current and future partners, and explore the potential for more collaboration with sectors such as fabrication, eHealth, and Biomedical tech. While we can't announce all the projects planned for 2017 just yet, we can start mentioning our support to the start up phase of Prosper, a broad initiative aimed at centralizing refugee crisis initiatives. Stay tuned to learn more and view the Open Tool of the month!
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Polygeia, a global health student-run research organization, has recently started a chapter in New York City.
Polygeia is a diverse group of undergraduate, medical, and graduate students from Columbia University, New York University, Mount Sinai, Fordham University, Hunter College, and other New York City area schools. Polygeia operates as a public policy consulting firm and aims to develop original research in global health in partnership with faculty and external organizations at Columbia and elsewhere. The New York City chapter is looking for students passionate about global health and policy to get involved! If you're interested, please fill out
this form, and one of the members will be in touch with more information on how to apply. If you have any questions, please contact
mdesmond3@fordham.edu.
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 Filming at the Borders Film Series - Welcome to Refugeestan (Bienvenue au Réfugistan) by Anne Poiret
Wednesday, October 26, 2016 | 4:00 - 5:30 PM
Almost 17 million people - refugees, displaced persons or migrants - live in camps, in a virtual country the size of the Netherlands. And yet the names of these places do not appear on any maps. The UNHCR and NGOs have developed ways of running them that are both efficient and absurd. This film explores the land of camps, from Kenya, to Tanzania, Jordan, and the Greece-Macedonia border, as well as at the UNHCR's headquarters in Geneva. It reveals an immense system that combines humanitarian concerns with the management of undesirables whom rich countries want to keep out, whatever the cost. The film highlights another facet of European policy regarding the migrant crisis, but on a global scale.
Location: Buell Hall | Columbia University | 515 West 116th Street | New York, NY 10027
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Over the next few months, Fordham University will be organizing a series of UN DPI/NGO Briefings at the United Nations. Attending students will be met at the United Nations by Fordham's NGO youth representatives and escorted to the briefings. All briefings will run from 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM.
You must be a current Fordham undergraduate student in order to register!
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 Beyond Neutrality: The Humanitarian System at a Crossroads
Thursday, October 27, 2016 | 2:30 PM
This event, organized by
Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA)
Human Rights and Humanitarian Policy concentration, is also to mark the retirement of
Professor Dirk Salomons
, the Director of Humanitarian Policy Track at SIPA and frequent
IIHA
and
IDHA
Guest Speaker, and to honor Professor Salomons' contribution to the field of humanitarian policy.
Location: International Affairs Building | 15th Floor, Room 1512 | School of International and Public Policy (SIPA) |
Columbia University
| 420 West 118th Street | New York, NY 10027
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Tuesday, November 1, 2016 | 4:30 PM
This event, organized by Fordham University and Javeriana School of Government and Public Ethics, will feature national and international academics and officials of the Colombian government. Speakers will include
Adriana LaRotta, Senior Director of Media Relations at Americas Society/Council of the Americas,
Brendan Cahill, Executive Director of the IIHA, and
Arnaldo Cruz-Malavé, Ph.D., Director of Fordham's Latin American and Latino Studies Institute.
Please Note: This event will be conducted in Spanish.
Location: E. Gerald Corrigan Conference Center | 12th Floor | Fordham University Lincoln Center Campus | 113 West 60th Street | New York, NY 10023
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 Can the UN Stop Racism? A Public Forum with the UN Special Rapporteur on Racism
Thursday, November 3, 2016 | 4:00 PM
This year is the 50th anniversary of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. The Convention is the centerpiece of the UN's efforts to rid the world of the blight of racial discrimination. It was born in the era of apartheid, "Jim Crow" racial segregation in the United States and colonialism in other parts of the world. The event will seek to inform the audience about the work of the UN on combating racism and particularly that of the Special Rapporteur and the CERD. The event will also try to evaluate the progress of that work over 50 years and the prospects for impacting the most urgent issues in the years to come. Please RSVP to the
Leitner Center.
Location: Moot Court Room | Fordham Law School | 150 West 62nd Street | New York, NY 10023
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2016 Global Washington Annual Conference - Allies for Action
Friday, December 8, 2016
The 2016 Global Washington Annual Conference theme is Allies for Action - effective NGO and business partnerships to improve lives in developing countries. Conference sessions will highlight the opportunities and challenges of partnerships, examine ways to measure the impact of shared value, and dive into the future of global development with a multi-stakeholder approach.
Location: Bell Harbor Conference Center | Seattle, WA 98121
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 Insecurities: Tracing Displacement and Shelter
Through January 22, 2017
For over 60 million persons in the world today, shelter is defined through constant movement or escape. Insecurities: Tracing Displacement and Shelter explores the ways in which contemporary architecture and design have addressed notions of shelter in light of global refugee emergencies. From the strengthening of international borders to the logistics of mobile housing systems, how we understand shelter is ultimately defined through an engagement with security. Refugee camps, once considered temporary settlements, have become sites through which to examine how human rights intersect with the making of cities. Bringing together projects by architects, designers, and artists, working in a range of mediums and scales, that respond to the complex circumstances brought about by forced displacement, the exhibition focuses on conditions that disrupt conventional images of the built environment.
Location:
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) | 11 West 53rd Street | New York, NY 10019
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4th Evidence Aid International Conference
Thursday, November 17 - Friday, November 18, 2016
Continuing the successful tradition of Evidence Aid's International Conferences, the 4th conference is inspired by the findings of a Policy Delphi Study that has been carried out in conjunction with the conference. The conference presentations and interactive discussion will address the access and uptake of robust evidence and how to facilitate appropriate use so that decisions on the ground use the best knowledge when responding to or preparing for disasters and other humanitarian emergencies. The conference will also include keynote presentations and panels addressing related issues. There will be influential speakers from a variety of organizations and universities, including the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Médecins Sans Frontières, the Active Learning Network for Accountability (ALNAP) and Performance in Humanitarian Action, Public Health England and Johns Hopkins University.
Location: Healey Family Student Center | Georgetown University | Washington, D.C. 20007
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Friday, April 7 - Sunday, April 9, 2017
Registration is now open for abstract admissions, panel proposals, and award nominations! Join more than 1,700 global health faculty, student, implementers and leaders from over 50 countries to explore the latest in global health, planetary health, and the role universities play in addressing global health challenges. Topic highlights include: Governance & Political Decision-making, Health Systems & Human Resources, Infectious Diseases Old & New, Implications for Global Health, NCDs and Social Determinants of Health, Planetary Health, Women's Health is Global Health and Issues Across the Lifespan
Location: Washington, D.C.
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Saturday, April 22 - Sunday, April 23, 2017
The Global Health & Innovation Conference at Yale, is the world's leading and largest global health conference as well as the largest social entrepreneurship conference, with 2,000 professionals and students from all 50 states and more than 55 countries. This must-attend, thought-leading conference convenes leaders, changemakers, professionals and students from all sectors of global health, international development, and social entrepreneurship.
Location:
Yale University | New Haven, Connecticut
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 Evidence Aid and the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine Partnership Launch
Thursday, October 27, 2016 | 5:00 - 7:15 PM
Evidence Aid, an international charity based in Oxford, and the
Centre for Evidence Based Medicine (CEBM) at the University of Oxford, are formally launching their partnership. More than $24 billion (USD) are spent annually on International Humanitarian aid. Since Evidence Aid was established in December 2004, nearly 1.6 billion people have been affected by disasters globally, with the estimated total cost of damages totalling over $1.3 trillion (USD). Despite this real and pressing need, robust evidence of the effects of interventions in humanitarian response is hard to find. There is a need for more evidence and a more evidence-based approach to humanitarian action.
Professor Mukesh Kapila, C.B.E., Professor of Global Health and Humanitarian Affairs at the University of Manchester will be the keynote speaker. He will be addressing the moral dimension to evidence-based humanitarianism.
To book tickets: Please visit the
website.
Location: Oxford, United Kingdom
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 7th Annual Sustainable Innovation Forum 2016
Monday, November 14 - Tuesday, November 15, 2016
Building on year-round work from
Climate Action and the
UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the Sustainable Innovation Forum will bring together participants from business, Government, finance, the UN, NGOs and civil society to create an unparalleled opportunity to bolster business innovation and bring scale to the emerging green economy.
Location: Marrakech, Morocco
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 AidEx
Wednesday, November 16 - Thursday, November 17, 2016
Now in its 6th year, AidEx is established as the leading platform for the international aid and development community to come together and improve the efficiency of aid. AidEx is a two day event, which encompasses a conference, exhibition, meeting areas, awards and workshops. Its fundamental aim is to engage the sector at every level and provide a forum for aid & development professionals to meet, source, supply and learn. It was created to help the international aid and development community engage the private sector in a neutral setting, drive innovation and support the ever-growing need for emergency aid and development programs.
Location: Brussels, Belgium
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 2nd Annual Aid & Development Africa Summit
Tuesday, February 21 - Wednesday, February 22, 2017
Gathering 300+ senior representatives and advisors from regional governments, UN agencies, international and regional NGOs, CBOs, investors and donors, research institutes and the private sector, Aid & Development Africa Summit looks at how technological innovations and best practice can improve aid delivery and development strategy in East Africa. The agenda has been developed in consultation with key organizations, such as WFP, IRFC, World Vision, USAID, UNICEF, World Bank, Save the Children, UN Habitat, CRS, FHI360, Oxfam, Habitat for Humanity International, IRD and will include case studies, panel discussions, workshops, and interactive roundtable sessions.
Location: Nairobi, Kenya
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 Humanitarian Negotiation Series: 'Protection of Medical Personnel and Operations at the Frontlines'
Wednesday, October 26, 2016 | 10:00 AM (EDT)
Recent high-profile attacks on humanitarian professionals and operations in Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq, among others, call attention to the growing vulnerabilities of humanitarian staff and medical operations at the frontlines. These attacks endanger lives, violate international humanitarian law, and jeopardize the effective delivery of emergency relief to populations in need. This panel discussion will explore the opportunities and challenges of negotiating protections for medical missions at the frontline, focusing particularly on tools and methods to strengthen humanitarian operations and negotiation capacity in complex environments.
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Wednesday, October 26, 2016 | 7:30 - 9:00 PM (EST)
Join Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) for a webcast from Pittsburgh's Carnegie Library Lecture Hall that will address the pressing issues of refugee resettlement in the U.S. and around the world. At a time where there are more displaced people in the world than there have been since World War II, the resettlement burden falls most heavily on the nations immediately surrounding the worst war zones on the planet. That has meant that the wealthiest nations have taken in far fewer people than countries with a fraction of the resources. Too often, the conversation around refugee issues is reduced to overly simplistic, dehumanizing rhetoric. But what resettlement actually means-the logistics, the duration of the process, the struggles of those who are resettled-gets lost. To discuss the realities and challenges of resettlement, the director of refugee resettlement for Pittsburgh's Northern Area Multi Service Agency joins MSF-USA executive director Jason Cone, and Sue Johnston, a veteran MSF aid worker who worked with displaced people in the field and resettled refugees in the US. They will discuss the connections between MSF's work in field and the people who've been resettled in the Pittsburgh area, issues mirrored in other communities throughout the US.
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 Expert Briefing: Hostile intent and civilian protection - Lessons from recent conflicts
Tuesday, November 8, 2016 | 10:00 - 11:00 AM (EST)
While some militaries have worked to reduce civilian casualties in armed conflict, greater attention should be paid to determinations of "hostile intent." Troops have the right to fire in self-defense if someone demonstrates hostile intent, i.e., a "threat of imminent use of force," but misidentifications of such intent have endangered civilians. Recent U.S. operations, especially in Afghanistan and Iraq, show that militaries could improve civilian protection without jeopardizing troops' lives by clarifying the rule and improving implementation. Targeted at legal experts and humanitarian practitioners seeking an advanced understanding of rules related to civilian protection in armed conflict, this expert briefing will feature a presentation by Bonnie Docherty from Harvard Law School on recent research carried out on the issue of hostile intent.
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