February 18, 2021 News

Caritas and Accountability: Safeguarding

One of the strongest commitments of our organization is ensuring that all participants of our programs – including children, vulnerable adults, and disabled people – are protected from abuse and exploitation. The environment in which we operate is extremely prone to abuse and exploitation as a consequence of power imbalance or violence. Such risks are heightened, in particular, during humanitarian crisis. At Caritas Czech Republic we have rigorous systems in place to make sure that everyone we work with is safe from any harm.

Safe recruitment and partnerships

We require every new employee to read and sign an acknowledgement of receipt of our Programme Participants and Child Safeguarding Policy. All new hires also have to sign a self-declaration in which they confirm that they were never convicted of any offense or misdemeanour related to child abuse. Alternatively, new employees submit their criminal records to prove the same.

We have a similar approach when entering a new partnership. All our partners must have their own safeguarding policy or they are welcome to adopt our own, while still meeting certain standards. Our partners also commit to perform background checks of all employees taking part in the project.

Training on safeguarding

In order to fully understand the importance of safeguarding in humanitarian and development sectors, all our employees must complete an online training called Safeguarding Essentials. This training is provided by Humanitarian Leadership Academy is freely available online.

Response to incidents

While we are taking all measures available to prevent abuse or exploitation, we also have systems in place should any incident arise. These include investigation guidelines to properly respond to any sensitive situation. We also have a referral system that can be activated upon request. All our employees as well as the people we work with can report any suspected or experienced misconduct. You can read more about our Feedback and Complaint Mechanism in the upcoming article on CCR’s accountability.