High-level Policy Workshop on Humanitarian UAVs

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN/OCHA) and the Humanitarian UAV Network (UAViators) are co-organizing the first ever high-level policy workshop on humanitarian UAVs. This 3-day workshop is kindly supported by the Rockefeller Foundation and will be held on July 15-17, 2015 at their magnificent center in Bellagio, Italy.

The goal of this convening is to fill the most pressing policy gaps in the humanitarian UAV space.

The following priorities were identified during an Experts Meeting at the United Nations Secretariat in New York:

• Code of Conduct: Revising and endorsing a Code of Conduct to inform policy and regulatory bodies at the national and international level.
• Principled Partnerships: Drafting guidelines to inform the partnership process between humanitarian organizations and UAV manufacturers.
• Community Engagement: Drafting guidelines and good practices on community engagement for the use of UAVs in humanitarian settings.
• Data Privacy: Drafting suggested guidelines on data privacy for the use of UAVs in humanitarian settings.
• Conflict Zones: Developing proposed guidance on the use of non-lethal UAVs in conflict zones and the relationship with civilian and military actors.

The five key action items above represent the concrete deliverables that this workshop is responsible for producing over the course of 3-days. These resulting deliverables will subsequently be opened up for comments by members of the international community and then finalized for public dissemination and official endorsement.