Late 2011, SMI concluded its research project and the issued the Policy Paper "Can you get sued? Legal liability of international humanitarian aid agencies towards their staff" written by Edward Kemp and Maarten Merkelbach.

This Policy Paper looks at current non-profit organisations’ practice related to legal liability/duty of care, and discusses the relevance of national law related to legal liability in five countries: the USA, the UK, France, Italy and Sweden.

The policy paper draws a number of cross-country conclusions and provides policy recommendations.

Download the text here.

The ‘Can you get sued?  Policy Paper was launched - in collaboration with A4ID – in London on November 2011. The launch was hosted by the London law firm CMS CameronMcKenna – which had participated in the research. Further launch evens were held in Washington DC and New York. These events were attended by professionals from aid agencies and NGO's; some reactions can be viewed here: