Helen Durham | |
|---|---|
 Helen Durham in 2023 | |
| Born | 1968 (age 55–56) Mount Isa, Queensland, Australia |
| Occupation(s) | CEO, humanitarian lawyer and academic |
| Spouse | Greg Arnold |
Helen Anne Durham AO (born 1968) is a humanitarian lawyer and academic, and the CEO of RedR Australia. [1]
Durham has a PhD in international humanitarian law and international criminal law from The University of Melbourne. [2]
Durham has devoted her career to strengthening legal protections for many of the world's most vulnerable people, notably the victims of war. This includes operational humanitarian missions with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and as an advocate on humanitarian affairs within Australia and globally. She is one of only a handful of international humanitarian lawyers to assist the ICRC in an update of the Commentaries to the Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols, in particular provisions relating to special protections for women. [3]
Durham was a key player in the drafting of an historic resolution to prohibit the use of nuclear weapons. She also played a key role in the creation of the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague in 2007. The ICC is the first permanent, international criminal court established to help end impunity for the perpetrators of the most serious crimes of concern to the international community. [3]
From 2014 to 2022, Durham was the Director of International Law and Policy at the ICRC, [3] the first woman and Australian to hold this position. Prior to this, she had served as Director of International Law, Strategy, Planning and Research at the Australian Red Cross. [4] She has worked as Head of Office for ICRC Australia, as well as a legal adviser to the ICRC Pacific region delegation. [5]
Durham is currently the CEO of RedR Australia, [1] a humanitarian organization that identifies, trains and deploys experts into crisis and conflicts globally. She oversees a register of more than 1,000 senior humanitarians and 80 humanitarian trainers. [6]
In an episode of RedR Australia's Humanitarian Conversations podcast in October 2023, Durham explained that:
"The core of humanitarian work is about using your skills...in a respectful way, to move society into a better space. So at the core of it, [these are] the fundamental principles... We do it for humanity, we do it in an impartial way. We are independent, we're not there for political purposes." [7]
When discussing leadership in the humanitarian sector, Durham said:
"I think any leader, but particularly in the humanitarian sector...[has to] balance compassion and courage. If you're too compassionate, you don't take hard decisions. But if you're too courageous, often you just steamroll over people...my mantra is often, as a leader, 'how to balance courage and compassion?'" [7]
In the episode, Durham also reflected on her experience in high-level, complex negotiations, such as with the UN Security Council or with Russian military. She described it as "terrifying, exhilarating, privileged, difficult, long". She also said:
"You use your whole self. It's not just intellectual. Use the pauses in the breaks; you understand the dynamics in the room. So it's almost a whole-person experience. But it always comes back to the people [you're trying to support] and the aims you're trying to get." [7]
Durham was one of the participants at TEDxSydney in May 2015, where she explained that, even in the worst conflicts, there is still a space for humanity. [8]
Durham is also a board member for Geneva Call, an NGO that works to improve the protection of civilians in armed conflict. [9] [10]
Durham is an expert in international humanitarian and criminal law, and has published academic work on topics such as women and war; the laws of war; and the prosecution of crimes against civilians. [2]
Durham has worked at the Asia Pacific Centre of Military Law at Melbourne Law School as Director of Research. [11]
She is currently a senior fellow at Melbourne Law School and lectures in international humanitarian law. [12]
Durham is also a senior fellow at the United States Military Academy's Lieber Institute. [13]
In 2014, Durham was inducted into the Victorian Honour Roll of Women. [14]
In 2017, Durham was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia for distinguished service to international relations in the area of humanitarian and criminal law, to the protection of women during times of armed conflict, and to legal education. [15]
Durham is married to singer/songwriter Greg Arnold. The couple have two children. She was the inspiration for the song "Happy Birthday Helen" by Arnold's band Things of Stone and Wood.
The organized International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a humanitarian movement with approximately 16 million volunteers, members, and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure respect for all human beings, and to prevent and alleviate human suffering. Within it there are three distinct organisations that are legally independent from each other, but are united within the movement through common basic principles, objectives, symbols, statutes, and governing organisations.
A war crime is a violation of the laws of war that gives rise to individual criminal responsibility for actions by combatants in action, such as intentionally killing civilians or intentionally killing prisoners of war, torture, taking hostages, unnecessarily destroying civilian property, deception by perfidy, wartime sexual violence, pillaging, and for any individual that is part of the command structure who orders any attempt to committing mass killings including genocide or ethnic cleansing, the granting of no quarter despite surrender, the conscription of children in the military and flouting the legal distinctions of proportionality and military necessity.
The Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, more commonly referred to as the Fourth Geneva Convention and abbreviated as GCIV, is one of the four treaties of the Geneva Conventions. It was adopted in August 1949, and came into force in October 1950. While the first three conventions dealt with combatants, the Fourth Geneva Convention was the first to deal with humanitarian protections for civilians in a war zone. There are currently 196 countries party to the 1949 Geneva Conventions, including this and the other three treaties.
The law of war is the component of international law that regulates the conditions for initiating war and the conduct of hostilities. Laws of war define sovereignty and nationhood, states and territories, occupation, and other critical terms of law.
Non-combatant is a term of art in the law of war and international humanitarian law to refer to civilians who are not taking a direct part in hostilities; persons, such as combat medics and military chaplains, who are members of the belligerent armed forces but are protected because of their specific duties ; combatants who are placed hors de combat; and neutral persons, such as peacekeepers, who are not involved in fighting for one of the belligerents involved in a war. This particular status was first recognized under the Geneva Conventions with the First Geneva Convention of 1864.
The First Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded in Armies in the Field, held on 22 August 1864, is the first of four treaties of the Geneva Conventions. It defines "the basis on which rest the rules of international law for the protection of the victims of armed conflicts."
International humanitarian law (IHL), also referred to as the laws of armed conflict, is the law that regulates the conduct of war. It is a branch of international law that seeks to limit the effects of armed conflict by protecting persons who are not participating in hostilities and by restricting and regulating the means and methods of warfare available to combatants.
Protocol I is a 1977 amendment protocol to the Geneva Conventions concerning the protection of civilian victims of international war, such as "armed conflicts in which peoples are fighting against colonial domination, alien occupation or racist regimes". In practice, Additional Protocol I updated and reaffirmed the international laws of war stipulated in the Geneva Conventions of 1949 to accommodate developments of warfare since the Second World War (1937–1945).
The International Committee of the Red Cross is a humanitarian organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, and is a three-time Nobel Prize Laureate. The organization has played an instrumental role in the development of rules of war and promoting humanitarian norms.
The Martens Clause is an early international law concept first introduced into the preamble of the 1899 Hague Convention II – Laws and Customs of War on Land. There are differing interpretations of its significance on modern international law, with some scholars simply treating the clause as a reminder international customary law still applies after a treaty is ratified while others take a more expansive approach where the clause provides that because international treaties cannot be all encompassing, states cannot use that as a justification for an action.
The Rule of Law in Armed Conflicts Project is an initiative of the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights to support the application and implementation of the international law of armed conflict.
The Geneva Conventions are international humanitarian laws consisting of four treaties and three additional protocols that establish international legal standards for humanitarian treatment in war. The singular term Geneva Convention colloquially denotes the agreements of 1949, negotiated in the aftermath of the Second World War (1939–1945), which updated the terms of the two 1929 treaties and added two new conventions. The Geneva Conventions extensively define the basic rights of wartime prisoners, civilians and military personnel; establish protections for the wounded and sick; and provide protections for the civilians in and around a war-zone.
The Algerian Red Crescent is an Algerian humanitarian volunteer organization founded in 1957. It has been recognized by the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement only since 1963.
Targeted Killing in International Law is a book about the legality of targeted killing, written by Nils Melzer. It was first published by Oxford University Press in May 2008. The book explores the history of targeted killing, as a government strategy by multiple countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, Israel, Switzerland and Germany; for both military and law enforcement purposes. Melzer argues that directly after the September 11 attacks in the United States, perceptions of the tactic became more positive.
Nils Melzer is a Swiss academic, author, and practitioner in the field of international law. From 2016 until 2022, Melzer was the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. He is a professor of international law at the University of Glasgow. From 2011-2013, he was Swiss Chair of International Humanitarian Law at the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights. Melzer has criticised the governments of the U.S., the U.K., Ecuador and Sweden over their treatment of Julian Assange.
RedR is an international NGO whose stated mission is to “rebuild lives in times of disaster by training, supporting, and providing aid workers to relief programmes across the world.” It was originally an acronym for Register of Engineers for Disaster Relief, although it is no longer used as such.
Jean Simon Pictet was a Swiss citizen, jurist, legal practitioner working in international humanitarian law. First as a secretary-jurist, and then as a senior executive and Vice-President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Pictet was instrumental in drafting the 1949 Geneva Conventions for the protection of victims of war, their Commentaries, and negotiating the 1977 Additional Protocols. He also proposed the Red Cross Movement’s seven Fundamental Principles, which were adopted at Vienna in 1965: Humanity, Impartiality, Neutrality, Independence, Voluntary Service, Unity and Universality. In 1989, an international humanitarian law competition for students was founded and named after him.
Customary international humanitarian law is a body of unwritten rules of public international law, which govern conduct during armed conflict.
The term international framework of sexual violence refers to the collection of international legal instruments – such as treaties, conventions, protocols, case law, declarations, resolutions and recommendations – developed in the 20th and 21st century to address the problem of sexual violence. The framework seeks to establish and recognise the right all human beings to not experience sexual violence, to prevent sexual violence from being committed wherever possible, to punish perpetrators of sexual violence, and to provide care for victims of sexual violence. The standards set by this framework are intended to be adopted and implemented by governments around the world in order to protect their citizens against sexual violence.
The Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights is a postgraduate joint center located in Geneva, Switzerland. The faculty includes professors from both founding institutions and guest professors from major universities.
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