Paper: From human resources to legal liability: An ethnographic perspective on the evolving duty of care towards humanitarian staff

Paper details

Paper authors Kristin Bergtora Sandvik
In panel on Participation and Accountability in Humanitarian Disaster Management
Paper presenter(s) will be presenting In-Person / Online

Abstract

This article explores the process of legalization as a shift in the way humanitarian actors are held accountable. The analysis is developed at the interface of legal sociology, legal anthropology and at the margins of an anthropology of the Norwegian welfare state. Through an account of the groundbreaking Steven Patrick Dennis v. the Norwegian Refugee Council litigated in Oslo District Court in October 2015, I show how the evolving juridification of humanitarian organizations’ duty of care for their staff is transforming both the content and the framing of the relationship between employers (NGOs) and employees (NGO workers), and perceptions of the duties and obligations that underpin this relationship.

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