Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response
Basic information
- Type: Code of Conduct/Ethics
- Year established: 1997
- Status: Active
- Thematic area: Humanitarian / emergency relief
- Summary: The Humanitarian Charter addresses principles concerning the right to life with dignity, the distiction between combatants and non-combatants and the principle of non-refoulement. The Minimum Standards aim to quantify these requirements with regard to people's needs for water, sanitation, nutrition, food, shelter and health care. Taken together, the Humanitarian Charter and the Minimum Standards constitute an operational framework for accountability in humanitarian assistance efforts.
Contact details
- Host organisation: SPHERE Project
- Website: www.sphereproject.org
- Email: info@sphereproject.org
- Phone: + 41 22 730 45 23
- Address: International Federation of Red Cross Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), Address: chemin des Crêts, 17 Petit-Saconnex, Case postale 372, 1211 Genève 19 Switzerland
Areas addressed
- Principles or standards: Standards-based
- Communications / advocacy / fundraising:
- General commitment to transparency
- Governance and Management:
- Anti-Corruption
- Beneficiary / client / supporter participation:
- General commitment to beneficiary participation
- In all project cycle stages
- In evaluation (ex post)
- In strategic planning
- Monitoring and Evaluation:
- General commitment to evaluation
- Commitment to integrate learning in future
- Impact evaluation
- Cross-cutting thematic areas:
- Gender equality
- CSO collaboration and partnership
Further info: Each standard has a list of key indicators which measure the impact of processes used and programmes implemented.
Participation
- Reasons for participation
- Enhancing credibility, quality or reputation
Compliance
- Monitoring mechanism: Commitment only
- Has sanctioning mechanism: No
Assessment
Sphere is a widely used set of technical standards developed through a lengthy process of consultanction within the humanitarina and emergency sector. Its target audiences are humanitarian professionals managing and implementing work in the main technical sectors such as health, water and hygiene, nutrition and shelter. Improved accountability to those affected by disasters is also explicitly part of Sphere’s overall goal. In this way there is ovelap with other initiatives in the humanitatian sector such as HAP-I. While Sphere has no complaince mechanisms the extensive consultation that informed the standards has helped instilled ownership among agencies and helped build recognition of the initiatives added value.
