Considerations and Guidance on the Humanitarian Engagement with Religious Leaders

Considerations and Guidance on the Humanitarian Engagement with Religious Leaders is an output of the three-year applied research project Generating Respect for Humanitarian Norms: The Influence of Religious Leaders on Parties to Armed Conflict – The Generating Respect Project. The research examined how religious leaders influence the behaviour of State and non-State parties to armed conflicts and whether their religious interpretations can lead to humanitarian norms-compliance. The publication aims to support humanitarian actors’ effective engagement with religious leaders with the goal of generating greater respect for humanitarian norms in armed conflict. It seeks to be a flexible tool – adaptable to the different mandates, priorities and needs of humanitarian organisations working on norms-compliance –, practical – providing answers to fundamental questions as to why and how to engage with religious leaders – and contextualiable – thus responsive to a variety of challenges and opportunities arising in diverse conflict-contexts. The document’s intended audiences are: i) humanitarian practitioners across non-, inter-, and governmental bodies; ii) donors and grant agencies; and iii) researchers, working in the area of compliance with international humanitarian law (IHL) and international human rights law (IHRL) in conflict contexts.