We show our respect to the children and young people we support and guide by adhering impeccably to ethical principles at all levels, including compliance with our Global Code of Conduct, painstaking and participatory project management, and by making ourselves accountable to the people and communities concerned.
We work in accordance with institutional funding providers’ requirements and humanitarian aid standards, and we have also chosen to meet the Core Humanitarian Standard in our work.
Our commitments for children
- Treat the children and communities with which we work with respect and dignity, collecting and listening to the ideas they suggest, and acknowledging their wishes.
- Build trusting relationships with them, their families and their communities.
- Reduce the damage we might cause by providing aid.
- Make our organisation more transparent about its role and results, while being realistic and clear-sighted about what works and what does not.
- Communicate about the methods that allow us to make progress .
- Be a trusted partner or stakeholder, one that is trustworthy and credible.
- Enable all children and young people – and also the adults in their family, friends and local community – to engage with, participate in and influence our projects, and to benefit from them fairly .
- Empower children and communities, through their active and meaningful participation, to contribute purposefully to decisions that affect their lives.
- Communicate information to children and communities about expected and unacceptable behaviour, the mission and actions of Terre des hommes. Be in a position to spot and deal with inequality and discrimination everywhere we work, including as regards the relative strength of our influence as a humanitarian and development organisation with other parties involved in our projects.
- Improve the quality of our work every day, in learning by doing.
Organisation-wide policies
In its 2021-24 strategy, Terre des hommes reaffirms its commitment to ensuring that the organisation’s Global Code of Conduct is known, endorsed and followed by all members of staff, volunteers, partners and consultants.
Global Code of conduct
The Global Code of Conduct sets the rules governing the conduct of everyone working for, or on behalf of, Terre des hommes, and it applies across the whole organisation. In accordance with the Foundation’s mission and values, the Code summarises the obligations to be met by members of staff and associated parties, such as volunteers, partners, suppliers, etc. It briefly covers the organisation’s key policies, directives and standards, and provides details of Terre des hommes’ specific commitments.
Safeguarding mechanism
The Foundation’s safeguarding system is entirely aligned with Terre des hommes’ mission, values, guiding principles and ethical standards as described in its Global Code of Conduct, and aims to ensure the protection and well-being of all beneficiaries, of all ages, the members of their communities, and the Foundation’s staff.
Based on the principle of “cause no harm”, this system reaffirms the Foundation’s zero tolerance approach towards any form of abuse, and is in line with the basic humanitarian standards of quality and accountability. It has three key components:
- the Child Safeguarding Policy
- the Policy on Protection from Exploitation and Sexual Abuse
- the Directive on Staff Misconduct in the Workplace
Raise a concern
Its commitments and its “zero tolerance” policy mean that every individual at Terre des hommes has the obligation to report an actual or suspected incident. Any suspected infringement must be reported through the appropriate “Concern” mechanism set up for this purpose in 2018. Such concerns are to be reported by email at concern@tdh.ch or the online platform at www.concern.tdh.ch.
Irrespective of the level of seriousness, reports are centralised at the foundation’s Lausanne headquarters, where they are then dealt with. The procedure stipulates that anonymous reports are handled and processed in accordance with the principles of confidentiality, protection of individuals and data, and impartiality.
Other policies
With the aim of promoting inclusion, we include diversity and gender awareness among our top priorities, alongside addressing inequalities in the balance of power. These are incorporated across the board, on an ongoing basis. They consequently concern the entire organisation, applying to employees, volunteers, partners and suppliers alike, and relate to our work in Switzerland as well as in those countries where we are running programmes.
