The reference framework for protection activities is set out in the protection policy adopted by the ICRC Assembly in 2008, which also provides guidelines for the debate on protection issues with other humanitarian practitioners.

Acting within its three areas of responsibility, the Division par­ticipated in the new rapid deployment mechanism in the course of five missions to Kenya, Georgia and Myanmar.

The ICRC seeks to protect civilians from the effects of armed conflicts and other forms of violence and to secure respect for fundamental rights by weapon carriers and the authorities concerned. It carries out activities that aim to make the authorities aware of their responsibilities and work to fulfil them. It also develops activities that aim to reduce the vulnerability of people exposed to specific risks, especially children, women, the elderly and disabled, and the displaced. These activities are not mutually exclusive.

In 2008, the Central Tracing Agency and Protection Division actively disseminated the guidelines established in 2007 for the protection of civilians affected by armed conflict through specific training sessions at headquarters and in the field. At the same time, several delegations revised their own context-specific guidelines for protection work.

A public version of the guidelines, entitled Enhancing protection for civilians in armed conflict and other situations of violence, targets practitioners of and scholars interested in protection work, and was published as part of the ICRC’s efforts to share its experience and lessons learned.

The Division also worked on finalizing a guidance document regarding activities for separated and unaccompanied children that is based on evaluations of recent ICRC programmes implemented in Africa and elsewhere, and on ongoing discussions with other players involved in this specific field.

Early in 2008, the ICRC initiated a process to bring together the various protagonists involved in protection activities in order to address the challenge of establishing protection standards. It created an advisory group that includes representatives of Amnesty International, the British Overseas Development Institute, Interaction US, Médecins sans Frontières (MSF), OHCHR and UNHCR to accompany the whole process. The purpose of establishing such standards is to ensure that protection work as a whole is built on a solid foundation, thereby encouraging both new and experienced protection practitioners to adopt a professional approach that optimizes the results of protection activities and mitigates their potential harmful implications.

The main objective of ICRC work to protect people deprived of their freedom is to prevent or put an end to summary executions, torture and other forms of ill-treatment, inadequate conditions of detention, the severing of contact between detainees and their families and disregard for fundamental judicial guarantees and procedural safeguards. ICRC visits are a means of collecting first-hand information about the treatment and living conditions of detainees. Trained ICRC staff visit places of detention, talk with the authorities concerned, hold private interviews with detainees/internees and prepare an overall analysis of their findings. ICRC findings, assessments and related recommendations are discussed confidentially with the authorities at the appropriate levels, and ICRC visits are repeated in a process that is held to strict professional standards.

Pursuant to the agreement concluded with the International Criminal Court in 2006, the ICRC carried out its fifth visit to five persons held under the Court’s jurisdiction in The Hague. In July, it participated in a workshop on family visits organized by the Court. The ICRC also continued to visit detainees being tried respectively by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (see Western Balkans) in The Hague and by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha, Tanzania (see Nairobi) and visited 12 detainees serving their sentences in third countries during 10 visits to 10 places of detention.

The ICRC monitored implementation of international instruments pertaining to the protection of persons deprived of their freedom, in particular the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture. In November, it attended a workshop on the Protocol’s implementation in member countries of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), taking the opportunity thus provided to share various forms of expertise. It also maintained close relationships with institutions and organizations active in the field of prison reform or in moni­toring conditions of detention, to the same end.

The Division also assisted field staff by providing information or training to prison management and staff on the legal provisions applicable to the treatment of persons deprived of their freedom, including juveniles, and to issues such as detainees’ contacts with their families and prison overcrowding.

Armed violence and natural or man-made disasters may lead to massive population displacement and the separation of families. Working as a rule in close cooperation with National Societies, the ICRC provides services for restoring family links, including reuniting family members. It pays particular attention and gives priority to children separated from their families and those demobilized from fighting forces, as they may encounter specific protection problems.

The family-links network – comprising the ICRC’s Central Tracing Agency, ICRC delegations and National Society tracing services – provides essential services to those with needs in this domain. It enables people to communicate with one another and strives to reunite separated family members, to locate missing relatives and to recover and identify human remains. The ICRC acts both in its direct operational capacity and in its lead role for restoring family links within the Movement. As such, it acts as the Movement’s technical adviser in this field and coordinator of the related interna­tional response, including in situations of natural disaster occurring outside conflict zones or violence-prone areas.

In 2008, implementation of the Restoring Family Links Strategy (2008–2018) got under way. The strategy, which was adopted by the Movement’s Council of Delegates in November 2007, aims to strengthen the Movement’s family-links network by enhancing the capacity of its components to respond to the needs of those without news of family members owing to an armed conflict or other situation of violence, a natural disaster or other circumstances, such as migration. The Division prepared a guidance document, adopted by the Directorate, for the Movement’s implementation of the strategy, started to monitor its implementation and worked to mobilize the entire Movement in support of it. In 2008, this included enhancing:

• the response capacity to natural disasters: a test version of the first family-links network field manual was produced, for use and validation during training of tracing teams in 2009

• the management of data and telecommunication tools: an upgraded version was produced of the ICRC family-links website

Armed conflicts and other situations of violence often lead to the disappearance of hundreds, or even thousands of people. ICRC activities in relation to missing persons include: promoting the relevant humanitarian rules; lending support for the development of appropriate national legislation; assisting authorities in setting up mechanisms aimed at addressing the issue of missing persons; cooperating with the authorities and the other players involved with a view to ascertaining the fate of the missing; tracing people who are unaccounted for; handling human remains; and provid­ing support to the families of the missing.

In 2008, the Division continued to chair the internal task force on missing persons and their families, ensuring consistency in the ICRC’s humanitarian response in this domain. It also helped the Assistance Division produce guidelines on relations with the families of missing persons.

The ICRC participated in various meetings, round-tables and conferences on general and specific protection issues. It also maintained bilateral relations with the main organizations and institutions active in this area. It shared views on challenges confronting organizations working in contexts of urban violence with MSF, National Societies and other institutions developing their presence in large urban settings.

Within the UN framework, it actively participated as an observer in protection cluster meetings, both in the field and at headquar­ters. The main purpose of these contacts was to promote the ICRC’s specific combination of an “all-victims” approach and responses to particular segments of the population facing particular risks and/or specific needs, in order to ensure complementarity and avoid unnecessary duplication.

The Division continued to take part in numerous discussions on the protection of IDPs within NGOs or UN fora and in academic circles.

The Division devoted considerable attention to the vital area of staff management and development. As concerns the protection training framework in particular, it supplemented existing courses with a new module for field personal involved in detention-related programmes, enabling delegates with an average three years’ experience to enhance their theoretical knowledge and acquire additional skills for dealing with matters such as torture and ill-treatment, judicial guarantees and prison systems.