Voluntary guidelines on the duty of care to seconded civilian personnel
Secondment splits responsibility between two organisations. The guidelines address what happens to the duty of care when the employer, the deployer and the funder are not the same body.
The problem with secondment
Seconded personnel sit in an arrangement where nobody holds the whole obligation. A state seconds a civilian expert to an international organisation. An international organisation seconds staff to a partner. A donor funds a post that is managed by one body and hosted by another. In each case the person is doing the work, but the responsibility for their safety is distributed across organisations that each believe another one has it.
The uncertainties are predictable. Whose risk assessment governs the deployment. Whose insurance responds. Who decides to withdraw the person when the context deteriorates. Who is responsible for medical care after the secondment ends. Who tells the family, and under whose procedure. Who conducts the investigation if something goes wrong.
What the guidelines require
- A written agreement before deployment. Not a memorandum that refers to the duty of care in general terms, but a document that allocates each element of it to a named organisation.
- One organisation holds the obligation. Responsibility may be allocated in any way the parties choose, but one of them has to hold the overall duty. An arrangement in which each party holds a part and nobody holds the whole is the failure mode the guidelines exist to prevent.
- The person is told which is which. A member of staff should be able to state, without looking it up, who insures them, who decides whether they stay, who they report an incident to and who supports them afterwards.
- Insurance continuity. Cover that does not lapse at the junction between the two organisations, and that is confirmed in writing rather than assumed from the terms of the secondment.
- Continuity after the secondment ends. The obligation does not end with the placement. Medical and psychological consequences that appear later are still consequences of the deployment.
- Preparation and training. The host organisation's briefing, the sending organisation's training, and a clear statement of which of the two a person has actually received.
Why voluntary guidelines
The guidelines are voluntary because the parties involved are states and international organisations whose obligations are governed by instruments that are not easily amended. The voluntary form allows the standard to be adopted contractually, in the secondment agreement, which is where it has effect.
Their practical value is as a checklist. An organisation drafting a secondment agreement can work through the elements above and confirm that each has been allocated. Where an element has not been allocated, the agreement is incomplete, and the person who will discover that is the member of staff in the field.
Related
Practical guidance and research on the security of humanitarian staff, for the organisations that send them.