Legal Basics on Protection in Humanitarian Action

Since 1992, Ed has worked at the global level and on the ground on humanitarian affairs. He is co-founder and Executive Director of HERE-Geneva, an independent think-tank that looks at the gap between policy and humanitarian practice by carrying out reviews, evaluations, and other studies. Before HERE, Ed worked as Chief Executive of DARA in Madrid where he led reviews and analysis on humanitarian issues. He has also been the Executive Director of ICVA, the Geneva-based NGO network that facilitates NGO coordination and cooperation on humanitarian policy and advocacy. In the 1990s, Ed worked with Medecins sans Frontieres in Amsterdam, where he co-created the policy/advocacy department, and was deployed overseas as humanitarian affairs officer.

Ed’s special areas of interest and expertise include humanitarian principles; coordination; protection; forced displacement; and quality and accountability in humanitarian response. Ed holds a Master’s degree (LLM) in International Law from Leiden University, the Netherlands.

Marzia is currently serving as Research Director for the Humanitarian Exchange and Research Centre (HERE-Geneva). She was most recently the Director for Humanitarian Policy and the International Council of Voluntary Agencies (ICVA)’s representative in New York. In this role, she liaised with the UN on a range of humanitarian issues and engaged Member States in a dialogue on issues, such as access and humanitarian principles. Prior to joining ICVA, Marzia worked for the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Internal Displacement in Geneva as their Head of the Africa and Americas department and a country analyst, contributing analysis and research in support of legislative and policy processes affecting IDPs. Leading up to this point, she held positions overseeing refugee response and justice sector reform programmes in Africa.

Marzia has a degree in International Relations from the University of Trieste in Italy and a Master’s degree in Human Rights from the London School of Economics and Political Science.