Humanitarian emergencies, protection, and displacement projects

(15 April 2025) Connecting grassroots understanding with positions of power can help make for better policy response – connecting community-based research findings across various scales.

Dr Zoe Bell (ANU/CEVAW) presented evaluation findings and discussed how best to tackle violence against women and the value of community-based research as part of a roundtable with the Hon. Jodie Minister Harrison: Minister for Women, Minister for Seniors, and Minister for the Prevention of Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault. 

Minister Harrison was briefed on the evaluation of the 'Me, Myself and I' program — a CALD domestic and family violence community awareness initiative. Around the table in Lakemba, NSW were community members and leaders from the Urdu speaking and Rohingya community including from ARWDO, Jannawi Family Centre, and Canterbury City Community Centre.

(March 2025) Bringing practitioners and scholars working on displacement and protection together in an academic space was powerful – allowing many services providing partners to step out of often predictable agency positions and discuss openly and creatively about extreme vulnerability in situations of forced migration and humanitarian response.

A series of events was hosted by ANU on the traditional land of the Ngunnawal and Namburi peoples that uniquely brought together international scholars from around the world, including First Nations academics and leading crisis response practitioners working in humanitarian protection, women’s, and children’s rights. The events included an ECR/HRD workshop convened by Michelle Godwin and Bina D’Costa, an interactive photo exhibition in partnership with ICRC, University of Queensland and the Myanmar Research Centre. Remarkable discussions across methodologies, the changing aid landscapes, current world crises and different responses to displacement and gender-based violence will now be taken forward and captured in various publications, short essays, and media with the view to inform research-led policy and advocacy. A network of dedicated displacement and protection specialists will be fostered moving forward, including forthcoming applicants to CEVAW’s membership. 

The series of events was convened by CEVAW Chief Investigator Professor Bina D’Costa and team Research Manager Michelle Godwin. The events sit at the intersection of several research projects supported by the Australian Research Council (ARC) at the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs (ANU), led by Professor D’Costa. These projects seek to understand Children's Displacement and Humanitarian Protection in the Global South (Future Fellowship) and engage the research stream on Migration and Trafficking situations at the Centre of Excellence on the Elimination of Violence Against Women (CEVAW), where a focus on the different contexts in which violence occurs is being examined. 

The workshop also drew in expertise assembled in the Visualising Humanitarian Crises: Transforming Images and Aid Policy Project, as well as support from the ANU Myanmar Research Centre (MRC) and Girls Run the World.

CEVAW contributors included:

• CEVAW Cis: Professors Bina D’Costa (ANU), Patrick O’Leary (Griffith)
• CEVAW Professional Staff/Affiliate: Michelle Godwin (ANU)
• CEVAW Fellows: Dr. Zoe Bell (ANU), Dr. Phyu Phyu Oo (Griffith)
• CEVAW Current Associate Investigators: Professors Rebecca Monson (ANU), Kirsten Ainley (ANU), Asmi Wood (ANU), Nick Cheesman (MRC)
• CEVAW Partner Investigators: Dr. Amporn Marddent (Thammasat University)
• CEVAW Current Affiliates: Dr. Binota Dhamai (ANU), Ms. Elayn Sammon (Independent), Mr. Anthony Nolan (International Rescue Committee), Ms. Masumi Yamashima (Tsunagu), Ms. Parboti Roy (British Colombia University)
• CEVAW Partner organisations: ActionAid Australia, Thammasat University

See the full write-up: Violence, Displacement, Protection | CEVAW.

Photos: 1) Workshop group photo. 2) A panel with Bina D’Costa, visiting and local First Nations, and other scholars followed on taking up the call to “move beyond acknowledgement”. 3) Welcome to Country, Paul Girrawah House in a moving ceremony that honoured women's leadership and his mum - Gambri-Kamberri Walgalu, Wallabalooa (Ngunnawal) and Wiradyuri Elder, Dr Matilda House.

(March 2025) Together with University of Queensland and ICRC, ANU held a photographic exhibition Towards Alternative Humanitarian Visuals?. The exhibition curated photographic works from three previous ICRC exhibitions that share stories of resilience amid warfare in the highlands of PNG, display portraits from landmine affected countries, and visualise the impact of armed violence in Afghanistan, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Georgia, Haiti, Lebanon, Liberia and the Philippines.

The collection asks us to consider what balance is required between showing devastating truths, beauty, individual dignity, identity, consent, and humanitarian response activities. When eliciting human connection for action, we are invited to pay attention to our own emotions and related responses, such as shock, solidarity, indifference, responsibility, and care. We know that humanitarian images have often foregrounded suffering. How can we provide more complex visualisations that also show complexity and ensure collaboration, and protection?

Celebrating the life of Associate Professor Emma Hutchison – whose pathbreaking work was critical to the Visualising Humanitarian Crises project, a reception was held to open the exhibition. Contributions were given from Samuel Barasi (ICRC), Roland Bleiker (UQ), Bina D’Costa (ANU), Amporn Marddent (Thammasat University), Gabriella Sanchez (Georgetown University), Michelle Heiglin (ActionAid), Jeremy Shusterman (UNICEF), as well as the Myanmar Research Centre, Girls Run the World, CEVAW, and the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs, among others.

(March 2025) ANU node is thrilled to partner with ActionAid Australia to join hands in research-led advocacy work on violence against women in the Pacific as part of  CEVAW. The research/practice team canvased how to embed programming and practice considerations research workplan so that efforts are grounded in real practice from the outset. The group hopes to collaborate with the Pacific and Women’s Rights Climate Change Network. Carol Angir (Humanitarian Lead), and Michelle Higelin (Executive Director), shared their insights with students, leading displacement and protection scholars in a week of research engagement, planning, and teaching activities in Canberra.