A light sandwich lunch is provided for seminar participants at 12:50. 

Humanitarian Action and Non-State Armed Groups: Legal Restrictions

Humanitarian actors aim to relieve human suffering with impartiality and independence.  However, humanitarians increasingly find that international or domestic sanctions regimes or counterterrorism measures impede their ability to deliver assistance to civilians in areas controlled by non-state armed groups (NSAGs).  In addition, banks in the UK and internationally are becoming reluctant to hold funds or engage in transactions for humanitarian actors who deal with NSAGs, with significant impact on humanitarian actors’ ability to operate effectively.  Kate Jones will discuss these restrictions and potential measures to alleviate them, with the twin aims of minimising impediments to the legitimate delivery of aid while maintaining the effectiveness of sanctions and counterterrorism legislation against true offenders.

Kate Jones is Director of Oxford University’s Foreign Service Programme and a member of the Law Faculty. For 13 years she was a lawyer with the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, including postings as Legal Adviser to the UK Mission to the United Nations in Geneva and as Deputy Head of the UK Delegation to the Council of Europe in Strasbourg.  She has written on the impact of the UK regulatory environment on humanitarian action in areas controlled by non-state armed groups as part of Chatham House’s programme on Humanitarian Engagement with Non-State Armed Groups.