Featured Projects
Founded in 2002, the International Humanitarian Law Research Initiative sponsors original policy papers and networking tools with the goal of promoting new strategies for the protection of civilians. The IHL portal, in parallel with a series of high-level expert meetings, facilitates information sharing and research on key legal and policy challenges.
This research initiative, driven by an expert working group, seeks to codify the rules of IHL applicable to air and missile warfare through a contemporary reexamination and methodical restatement of existing law.
The Advanced Training Program on Humanitarian Action (ATHA) is designed to enhance the knowledge and capacity of humanitarian NGOs operating in complex environments through training courses, policy support, networking and dialogue. The ongoing project cycle 2010-2013 is focused on the management of humanitarian assistance.
With the Humanitarian Law and Policy Forum, HPCR facilitates the emergence of an active global community of practice, bringing together humanitarian professionals from around the world to access forum discussions and interactive seminars, and to engage with experts and peers on contemporary challenges to the protection of civilians in armed conflict.
HPCR initiated the “Criminalizing Humanitarian Engagement” Project after recognizing that the humanitarian community faced increasingly difficult challenges based on the proliferation of counterterrorism laws and regulations that have a capacity to affect the delivery of humanitarian assistance.
The Project on the Humanitarian Response to Human Trafficking is a policy research project initiated to assess strategies for improving local and international responses to human trafficking in complex emergencies and to support public and private sectors’ planning and programming activities in addressing this issue.
The Project on Transformative Philanthropy offers professional development and networking opportunities to private donors interested in contributing to sustainable, community-based relief operations in times of natural disaster and complex humanitarian emergencies.
This project is geared toward developing capacity building measures, training opportunities, and practical guidance in the domain of monitoring, reporting, and fact-finding (MRF). HPCR, building on two years of intensive research on MRF mechanisms, has engineered the Harvard Group of Professionals on Monitoring, Reporting, and Fact-finding. This collective of high-level MRF practitioners will convene over the course of the coming years to build a consensus among key MRF stakeholders around the most effective methods of addressing the core challenges that MRF practitioners face.
HPCR has launched a new and ground-breaking research project on the role of professional networks in the dissemination of innovation and best practices in the humanitarian sector. HPCR is committed to the professional development of humanitarian practitioners working in complex emergencies. The purpose of this research is to discover how professional networks may be used most effectively to promote the sharing of information and experiences on best practices and innovations in the humanitarian sector.
Archived Research
Developed in cooperation with the UN and other international agencies, this project delivers policy and training activities focusing on IHL in the context of the Middle East peace process. An associated portal serves as an online information resource, offering materials in both Arabic and Hebrew.
This research initiative analyzed demographic and socioeconomic indicators in the Gaza Strip as a guide for projected infrastructure and policy planning.
This HPCR project was designed to assist in the development of preventive strategies for addressing the conflict in Indonesia, and to inform debates among the policy community and civil society by focusing on the needs of the population.
Active from 2001 through 2004, this project provided policy and communications support to the Human Security Network, a multilateral group of 13 states dedicated to promoting human security strategies in foreign policy.
Seeking to illuminate human security needs and legal reform issues, HPCR's Central Asia activities included research and advisory services, regional dialogues on critical challenges, and publication of original policy briefs.
Providing background on the conflict between Maoist groups and the government, the Nepal portal highlighted the sources of instability and human insecurity in that region. Current information and analysis is now available on the IHLRI portal.
This interdisciplinary portal was developed to explore the complex relationship between commerce and war, with the goal of aiding governments, corporations, and international agencies in disentangling the root causes of conflict.
This project examines the historical and strategic roots of methods of conducting and containing warfare and their impact on international law, in light of the new challenges posed by the role and place of transnational armed groups such as Al Qaeda.
