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Although aid agencies have taken many steps to respond to security challenges, they have often failed to consider their legal responsibilities to staff, report says
By Katie Nguyen
Remember the lawsuit former Samaritan's Purse worker, Flavia Wagner, brought against the organisation earlier this year?
Wagner, an American, was abducted in Darfur and held for more than three months before being freed in 2010.
She sued Samaritan's Purse, accusing it of failing to train its security personnel properly and of wilfully ignoring warning signs that kidnappings were a threat to foreigners.
It was, at the time, a rare case against an NGO.
However, a new report suggests more aid workers might file lawsuits against their organisation as litigation spreads to areas that were unthinkable only a few years ago, it said, citing the military.
"Litigation is an avenue used by staff (or their families) to seek redress, and the same may well become a reality rather than an exception for non-profit organisations (as well as the United Nations)," the paper said.
Titled "Can you get sued? Legal liability of international humanitarian aid organisations towards their staff", the report was launched by the Security Management Initiative (SMI), which works with NGOs on security issues, and Advocates for International Development (A4ID).
More than 1,900 aid workers have been killed, wounded or kidnapped in the line of duty between 2000 and 2010, and it is becoming significantly more dangerous for those working in conflict-ridden countries such as Somalia, Sudan, Afghanistan and Pakistan, A4ID said.
It said although aid agencies have taken many practical steps to respond to this changing reality, they have often failed to consider their legal responsibilities to their staff.
"... the aid and development sector's risk and security management is subject to the same basic legal ground rules and responsibilities as any other enterprise: it is mandatory not optional," A4ID said in a statement.
"Up until now most aid agencies have viewed protecting the safety and security of their staff as a moral requirement, the 'right thing to do'. But the systems are mainly self regulatory and often inconsistent," it added.
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