On Thursday 9 May 2019, 70 participants gathered to hear from international humanitarian law experts from the American Red Cross and UNICEF. The three speakers presented details about international human rights law, international humanitarian law and how these laws are applied in conflict, disaster, and other humanitarian crisis situations. This was an important opportunity for people working on human rights, immigration, refugee issues, disaster response and other humanitarian programs in the Chicago area to learn about the international legal instruments and how they are applied in the United States and conflict, disaster, and other humanitarian crises around the world. There is an opportunity for building more collaboration among these Chicago based organizations, both for increasing advocacy efforts that extend protection and increase governmental response for vulnerable people as well as to organize stronger collaborative responses from the Chicago area.
