Olivier Vandecasteele is an experienced humanitarian leader and the founder of Protect Humanitarians, a global alliance dedicated to enhancing the protection and care of frontline humanitarian personnel. For 20 years, Olivier has personally responded to humanitarian crises in challenging contexts, including health emergencies in Afghanistan and Mali, and providing essential aid to refugees and migrants in Morocco and Iran. After serving as Country Director for various NGOs, Olivier was taken hostage and arbitrarily detained in Iran for 456 days. Both Amnesty International and the United Nations recognised that he had been subjected to enforced disappearance and torture. One year after regaining his freedom, Olivier now leads Protect Humanitarians, a sector-wide initiative advocating for better protection of humanitarian personnel, improved mental health support for survivors, duty of care for local personnel, and increased litigation to hold perpetrators of attacks against humanitarians accountable